I hear they are good, make it easier to maintain code-bases. Most often I reach for python to get the job done. Does anyone have experiences with functional languages for larger projects?
In particular I am interested to learn more on how to handle databases, and writing to them and what patterns they come up with. Is a database handle you can write to not … basically mutable state, the arch-nemesis of functional languages?
Are functional languages only useful with an imperative shell?
Got to put my plug in for Elixir. Built on the legendary Erlang runtime, looks like Ruby and secretly a Lisp under the covers. The Ecto database library blows every other ORM or tool I have ever used out of the water.
Regarding mutability, I would argue the runtime has everything you need like message passing, software transactional memory, pleasant I/O and the best exception handling you could imagine
Seconding Elixir as a delightful and highly effective tool to solve almost every issue I’ve had.