Passing functions

You can think of functions as a collection of instructions stored as a variable. Different languages handle that differently, so let's just look at python for now.

>>> m = {'name':'Fredrick Anderson','ssn':'287-32-4492'}
>>> m
{'name': 'Fredrick Anderson', 'ssn': '287-32-4492'}
>>> def m():
...   print('foo')
...
>>> m
<function m at 0x103e3eca0>
>>> m()
foo
>>> printfoo = m
>>> printfoo()
foo
>>> m()
foo

The variable `m` is no longer a dictionary containing Fred's ssn. Wow. I bet naming and namespacing could become really important, what do you think?

Anyway, if functions are variables, we can pass them to functions right? Of course we can.

>>> def blurse(somestring):
...   out = ""
...   for _ in range(len(somestring)):
...     out += random.choice(somestring)
...   return out
...
>>> blurse("Charles Wong")
'segresl enWn'
>>> def dopple(somestring):
...   somestring += somestring
...   return somestring
...
>>> # This next line only passes the result of a function, not the function itself.
>>> blurse(blurse(dopple(dopple(blurse('Charles Wong')))))
'CheWnCsCeerCesonCoConWshnWseWssenCensnossoCCohoo'

So let's really do it...

# heckablurse.py
import random

def heckablurse(curses, anger_level, name):
    out = ""
    out += random.choice(curses)(name)
    anger_level -= 1
    while anger_level > 0:
        anger_level -= 1
        out += random.choice(curses)(out)
    return out

def blurse(somestring):
    out = ""
    for _ in range(len(somestring)):
        out += random.choice(somestring)
    return out

def dopple(somestring):
    somestring += somestring
    return somestring

print(heckablurse([blurse, dopple], 13, "Charles W Wong"))

% python heckablurse.py
'very long cursed output`