I think every people will have different terms. For instance, for my teachers, argument and parameter were synonyms, and :
in the definition : f x = x + 3 x was a _formal_ parameter (or argument) and in f 32 32 was the _effective_ parameter. So, short answer: don't bother. Context makes things clear enough. 2011/10/1 José Romildo Malaquias <j.romi...@gmail.com> > Hello. > > When studing programming languages I have learned that parameter is a > variable (name) that appears in a function definition and denotes the > value to which the function is applied when the function is called. > > Argument is the value to which the function is applied. > > The parameter allows the manipulation of the argument in the body of the > funtion definition in order to produce the result. > > Now I am not sure how to apply these concepts to Haskell, as Haskell > uses pattern matching to deal with argument passing to functions. > > For instance, in the definition > > f x = 2 * x + 1 > > x is a parameter, and in the application > > f 34 > > 34 is an argument. > > But in the definition > > g (_:xs) = xs > > what is the parameter of the function g? Is it the pattern (_:xs)? If so > then a parameter is not necessarily a variable anymore, and that seems > very strange. And what is xs? Is it a parameter, although it does not > denote the value to which the function is aplied, but just part of it? > > I am writing some slides to use in my functional programming classes, > but I am not sure how to deal with these terms. > > Any comments? > > Romildo > -- > DECOM - ICEB - UFOP > > _______________________________________________ > Haskell-Cafe mailing list > Haskell-Cafe@haskell.org > http://www.haskell.org/mailman/listinfo/haskell-cafe >
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