Re: OO versus RDB

From: Marshall <marshall.spight_at_gmail.com>
Date: 6 Jul 2006 08:33:58 -0700
Message-ID: <1152200036.255450.235950@p79g2000cwp.googlegroups.com>

Daniel Parker wrote:

> I think what I would like to have is a hybrid language, that would
> allow me to implement a function with imperative techniques, permitting
> mutable data structures for building immutable objects, aka
> StringBuffer/String in Java, and a pure functional higher view. Does
> that sound sensible? Or stupid?

Sounds exactly right. Functional by default, imperative when necessary.

It's also entirely possible (as I think you're implying) to have a language
that allowed one to write a function that is "pure" (in that its outputs
depend solely on its parameters) but whose implementation was imperative. The functional guys *hate* it when I point this out. :-)

There might even be type system support for distinguishing pure functions.

Marshall Received on Thu Jul 06 2006 - 10:33:58 CDT