On 3/18/2012 2:20 PM, Dan Lentz wrote:
I'm an extreme newbie to cells and have just begun reviewing the
literature so this may be a FAQ, but in general how does cells relate
to "functional" programming practice? My first reaction is that is
seems antithetical, as it inherently introduces state and eliminates
referential transparency. However if one looks at it as a declarative
approach in making statements about relations, perhaps not. maybe it
can therefore be used in a functional style along the same lines as
standard clos/mop, which can also be considered stateful if evaluated
at the level of the individual sub protocols etc.
Really my question is "is cells something one should consider if
otherwise one has worked hard to achieve functional style practices?"
I think you have it about right: Cell rules are nicely declarative and
generally functional, but in the end Cells is all about managing a
complex pile of application state representing <whatever real-world
system we are modelling>. So, for example, the RoboCells implementation
kept its own internal model of the game, with players and the ball
modelled as CLOS instances. This model got updated as new sensory inputs
were received. Sounds like "state" to me. :) That said, I imagine even
functional programmers have to deal with long-lived models so maybe
....a monad? Sorry, I wish I knew more about the functional game.
One thought that crosses my mind is Clojure with its functional state
(if I have that right) and I know some folks over there were playing
with implementing something Cells-ish in Clojure. Maybe chack in with
those folks for thoughts from folks more functionally inclined than myself.
----
Replace the method
the carefully chosen name
deletes the comment
Haha, I always love when during refactoring I come to a comment that is
no longer needed because the comment was explaining something the
refactoring fixed.
Best, ken
_______________________________________________
cells-devel site list
cells-devel@common-lisp.net
http://common-lisp.net/mailman/listinfo/cells-devel
