Article View: comp.lang.misc
Article #531Re: Which language to teach first?
From: Jeff Dalton
Date: Fri, 18 Aug 1989 17:10
Date: Fri, 18 Aug 1989 17:10
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1535 bytes
In article <178@castle.ed.ac.uk> db@lfcs.ed.ac.uk (Dave Berry) writes: >In article <741@skye.ed.ac.uk> jeff@aiai.uucp (Jeff Dalton) writes: >>a functional language might just be a subset of a procedural one > >A functional language is a language that has functions as first class values. >An imperative or procedural language is one that supports (re-)assignment. I don't think those definitions are quite right, but they'll do for now. >Languages that support both are not subsets of either style; they are hybrids. That is true, but beside the point. It is certainly possible to have a language that has a functional subset. Scheme, Common Lisp, and Standard ML are examples of languages that have such a subset. So, if I want to use a functional language, I might use one of these sublanguages. That was all I was trying to say. If you want to say "a subset isn't a language" that's fine with me, but I don't think it's very important. -- Jeff
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<2584@aplcen.apl.jhu.edu> <6226@hubcap.clemson.edu> <1304@batserver.cs.uq.oz> <741@skye.ed.ac.uk> <178@castle.ed.ac.uk>Show Full Headers
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Path: arc1-ca.pugleaf.net!utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!csd4.csd.uwm.edu!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!mcvax!ukc!edcastle!aiai!jeff From: jeff@aiai.uucp (Jeff Dalton) Newsgroups: comp.lang.misc Subject: Re: Which language to teach first? Message-ID: <761@skye.ed.ac.uk> Date: 18 Aug 89 17:10:50 GMT References: <2584@aplcen.apl.jhu.edu> <6226@hubcap.clemson.edu> <1304@batserver.cs.uq.oz> <741@skye.ed.ac.uk> <178@castle.ed.ac.uk> Sender: news@aiai.ed.ac.uk Reply-To: jeff@aiai.uucp (Jeff Dalton) Organization: AIAI, University of Edinburgh, Scotland Lines: 21