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Of what use is 'lambda'???

Ian Hobson ian.hobson at ntlworld.com
Sun Sep 24 17:31:22 EDT 2000 
In article <39cbda82.38443020 at news.bright.net>, Jonadab the Unsightly
One <jonadab at bright.net> writes
>
>I have a question.  What is the difference between functional
>programming and procedural programming?  I know I should know
>this, but...

Side effects. 

In procedural programming, things with side effects are called because
of those effects, and they have names like read, write, and print. 

Simple and straightforward. Well straightforward anyway. 

In functional programming the side effects are hidden, so they jump out
and bite you. For example, your report has to compute to one massive
string, which is then printed by the system. 

This has the simplicity of theoretical elegance, but as a practical
matter is rather hard to get your mind round. 

Now - who will write the prolog? :)

Regards

Ian    (none too serious)

Ian Hobson 

Every time we teach a child something, we prevent him from inventing 
it himself. - Jean Piaget
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