> C in indeed a functional language in that most C projects are things that have been observed in real life and have subsequently been uploaded into computers.
I don’t think you share the same understanding of functional as TFA uses.
Not functional as in “working”/functioning. Functional is meant here as in functional programming, the paradigm.
AFAIK, functional programming is programming that doesn't modify state.
And, if all you're doing is taking material from real life and uploading into computers, then you're not modifying state at all.
Maybe I am misunderstanding what you wrote, but "state" in the context of functional programming refers to the state internal to the program, not the state external to the program. So whether the input data comes from the real world is orthogonal to the question of whether a program preserve state.
There are no authoritative definition AFAIK, but this is a way too coarse definition to qualify for me at least.
I think many equate FP with referential transparency, garbage collection, first class functions/closures.
C is by no means a functional language. It is perhaps the definition of imperative; the poster child.