2009/10/1 Andrew Coppin <andrewcop...@btinternet.com>: > John Dorsey wrote: >>> >>> Well, try this: Go ask a random person how you add up a list of numbers. >>> Most of them will say something about adding the first two together, >>> adding the third to that total, and so forth. In other words, the step by >>> step instructions. >>> >> >> You word the (hypothetical) question with a bias toward imperative >> thinking. You're asking "How do you do this action?" >> >> Why isn't the question "What is the sum of a list of numbers?", which is >> biased toward the declarative? >> > > Sure. But what is a computer program? It's a *list of instructions* that > tells a computer *how to do something*. And yet, the Haskell definition of > sum looks more like a definition of what a sum is rather than an actual, > usable procedure for *computing* that sum. (Of course, we know that it /is/ > in fact executable... it just doesn't look it at first sight.)
Well, we are not writing computer programs directly, even in C, that's what compilers are for. That's why I find arguments about the sequential essence of computer programs to be weak. > > Whatever; I'm leaning more and more towards the concept that FP is only hard > for people who already learned some other way... > > _______________________________________________ > Haskell-Cafe mailing list > Haskell-Cafe@haskell.org > http://www.haskell.org/mailman/listinfo/haskell-cafe > -- Eugene Kirpichov Web IR developer, market.yandex.ru _______________________________________________ Haskell-Cafe mailing list Haskell-Cafe@haskell.org http://www.haskell.org/mailman/listinfo/haskell-cafe
