  This article is a rough, quirky overview of both the history and present
state of the art of density functional theory. The field is so huge that no
attempt to be comprehensive is made. We focus on the underlying exact theory,
the origin of approximations, and the tension between empirical and
non-empirical approaches. Many ideas are illustrated on the exchange energy and
hole. Features unique to this article include how approximations can be
systematically derived in a non-empirical fashion and a survey of warm dense
matter.
