Correctness – A paradigm for sustainable software development
As someone who practices and encourages others to employ formal methods in software development, I&#x27;m disappointed to read a post that claims FP has some significant effect on correctness. This has not been established, and does not at all appear to be the case. There are many aspects, including techniques and tools, that can positively affect program correctness. The choice of a programming language or even a paradigm is not high on the list if it is on it at all. Not only does the little data we have not substantiate the hypothesis that FP has a significant positive effect on correctness, there are even significantly fewer anecdotal reports supporting that hypothesis than other, apparently more effective techniques. In short, any connection between FP and correctness is, at this point in time, nothing more than wishful thinking, and the efforts of those who really care about correctness are better spent elsewhere (i.e. <i>not</i> on picking a new language).