Re: The wisdom of the object mentors

Dmitry A. Kazakov wrote:
> Enumeration was just an example of an algorithm for which I, an ignorant,
> stupid imbecile, if that would please you, can't even imagine what the data
> could be. Even less I can imagine what is a structure of. Further it is
> utterly incomputable [infinite, requires axioms of choice and power set
> etc.]

Enumeration is not an algorithm. Presumably you're talking about (ignore some terminological vagueness here) mapping a function to nodes of some structure. Enumeration just gets you to each node. The function still has to operate on the node, and type issues are critical. Furthermore, the results have to be accumulated; another "part" of the algorithm.

Certainly functional combinators are important and useful, and many functional languages do a bang-up job (and for a great read, check out John Backus's 1977 Turing Award lecture paper). "Enumeration" is just a tiny piece.  

• erk