We at Serokell love Rust. We also love functional languages like Haskell and OCaml. However, there appears to be a bit of confusion as to whether Rust can be called a functional language, too.

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Rust is not a functional language despite borrowing some functional programming concepts. While it includes features like algebraic data types, pattern matching, and expression-oriented syntax, it lacks core functional characteristics such as guaranteed tail call elimination, functional purity, referential transparency, and truly first-class closures. Rust is fundamentally a systems programming language closer to C++ that strategically adopts proven FP solutions to address specific pain points like exception handling and ad-hoc polymorphism. The language's pervasive mutability, lack of purity guarantees, and imperative nature make it incompatible with functional programming paradigms, though these design choices align perfectly with its goal of being a pragmatic systems language.

Why Rust is not a functional language

I am not saying the below is perfect, I am just wondering why we care so much about the language? I write in haskell for person projects, but not many commercial projects use it. But why does that stop us from writing functional code in whatever language the job requires?
<a href="https://github.com/ForbocAI/sdk-ue-5.7.3/blob/main/C%2B%2B11-FP-GUIDE.md" target="_blank" rel="noopener nofollow">https://github.com/ForbocAI/sdk-ue-5.7.3/blob/main/C%2B%2B11-FP-GUIDE.md</a>
<a href="https://github.com/ForbocAI/sdk-ue-5.7.3/blob/main/Plugins/ForbocAI_SDK/Source/ForbocAI_SDK/Public/Core/functional_core.hpp" target="_blank" rel="noopener nofollow">https://github.com/ForbocAI/sdk-ue-5.7.3/blob/main/Plugins/ForbocAI_SDK/Source/ForbocAI_SDK/Public/Core/functional_core.hpp</a>

Rust was build to be hard and Solid as a base, which brings more stability and security. it’s a not fluid language in purpose… “Rust” DUH…

Rust is an imperative language with a data-oriented design philosophy and functional programming concepts.