🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <4j8177$18ma@saba.info.ucla.edu>,
Jay Martin <jmartin@cs.ucla.edu> wrote:
>
>>  function CountThem (l: List): integer;
>>  var Count: integer
>>    procedure CountOne (e: ListElement);
>>    begin
>>      if <some condition on e fulfilled> then begin
>>        Count := Count + 1;
>>      end;
>>    end;
>>  begin
>>    ApplyOnList (l, CountOne); (* !!!! *)
>>    CountThem := Count
>>  end;
>
>
>This is what I call side-effects on a global variable (or variable of
>a larger scope).  Its not what I call good programming practice.  In
>fact, I see nested procedures as implemented in algol block languages
>(automatic importation of variables from larger scopes) as another
>stupid idea of CS.  

	Hardly:  If CountThem is part of the published interface, then
how Count is used is immaterial.  Not that this matters, because it's
a secondary issue.

	The point that you appear to be missing is that procedures and
functions are treated in a first-class manner, which is both powerful
and easy to understand.  Compare this to how C/C++ uses pointers to
functions: it requires a great deal of work to get by the compiler,
and introduces a tremendous succeptibility to error.  And when the
pointers do get munged, finding the bug isn't necessarily easy.

	-rj
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