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Ramda

472
83
+ 1
3
Underscore

1.8K
589
+ 1
290
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Ramda vs Underscore: What are the differences?

## Introduction
This Markdown code presents the key differences between Ramda and Underscore, two popular JavaScript libraries commonly used in functional programming.

1. **Functional Programming Paradigm**: Ramda is designed purely for functional programming, emphasizing immutability and side-effect-free functions, while Underscore offers a mix of functional programming utilities along with object-oriented programming support.

2. **Automatic Data-last Method Signatures**: Ramda follows the functional programming convention of keeping the data parameter last in its method signatures, whereas Underscore adheres to traditional JavaScript conventions with data as the first parameter.

3. **Automatic Currying of Functions**: Ramda functions are automatically curried by default, allowing for easier partial application, while Underscore functions are not natively curried, requiring explicit calls to curry functions.

4. **Chaining vs Composition**: Underscore provides chaining methods for easier method sequencing, while Ramda emphasizes function composition as a primary approach for creating complex functions by combining simpler ones.

5. **Separate Utility Functions vs Methods on the Prototype**: Underscore adds utility functions directly to the `\_` global object, requiring them to be invoked with `_.`, while Ramda requires importing functions individually or as a whole for use, ensuring a cleaner namespace.

6. **Dynamic vs Static Typing**: Ramda is designed with type signatures for its functions, making it more suitable for statically typed languages and enhancing development with strong type support, whereas Underscore lacks this feature and is more dynamic in nature.

In Summary, the key differences between Ramda and Underscore lie in their functional programming paradigms, method signatures, currying, function composition, utility function accessibility, and type system integration.
Decisions about Ramda and Underscore

Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources (FHIR) provides standard data objects in JSON format for the healthcare industry. Since JSON objects are hierarchical and tree-like, we had a need to defensively 'pluck' fields from our JSON objects and do lots of mapping. We tried jQuery and Underscore and a few other technologies like FHIRPath; but Lodash has been the most well supported, works in the most contexts, has the cleanest syntax, etc. We particularly like the ES6 version of Lodash, where we can import the method names directly, without resorting to * or _ syntax. We got hooked on the 'get' function to defensively pluck fields from objects without crashing our user interface, and have found countless uses for the other lodash functions throughout our apps. Lodash is great for developing and optimizing algorithms.

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Pros of Ramda
Pros of Underscore
  • 2
    Automatically curried
  • 1
    Point free programming
  • 85
    Utility
  • 55
    Simple
  • 40
    Functional programming
  • 32
    Fast
  • 28
    Open source
  • 20
    Backbone
  • 16
    Javascript
  • 8
    Annotated source code
  • 6
    Library

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What is Ramda?

It emphasizes a purer functional style. Immutability and side-effect free functions are at the heart of its design philosophy. This can help you get the job done with simple, elegant code.

What is Underscore?

A JavaScript library that provides a whole mess of useful functional programming helpers without extending any built-in objects.

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What companies use Ramda?
What companies use Underscore?
See which teams inside your own company are using Ramda or Underscore.
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What tools integrate with Ramda?
What tools integrate with Underscore?
    No integrations found

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    What are some alternatives to Ramda and Underscore?
    Lodash
    A JavaScript utility library delivering consistency, modularity, performance, & extras. It provides utility functions for common programming tasks using the functional programming paradigm.
    RxJS
    RxJS is a library for reactive programming using Observables, to make it easier to compose asynchronous or callback-based code. This project is a rewrite of Reactive-Extensions/RxJS with better performance, better modularity, better debuggable call stacks, while staying mostly backwards compatible, with some breaking changes that reduce the API surface.
    Immutable.js
    Immutable provides Persistent Immutable List, Stack, Map, OrderedMap, Set, OrderedSet and Record. They are highly efficient on modern JavaScript VMs by using structural sharing via hash maps tries and vector tries as popularized by Clojure and Scala, minimizing the need to copy or cache data.
    Modernizr
    It’s a collection of superfast tests or detects as we like to call them which run as your web page loads, then you can use the results to tailor the experience to the user. It tells you what HTML, CSS and JavaScript features the user’s browser has to offer.
    Modernizr
    It’s a collection of superfast tests or detects as we like to call them which run as your web page loads, then you can use the results to tailor the experience to the user. It tells you what HTML, CSS and JavaScript features the user’s browser has to offer.
    See all alternatives