Re: What is a functional language?

[Fergus Henderson]

On 27-Sep-1999, Bjorn Lisper <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> Nonstrict languages actually have the property that function definitions can
> be seen as equations.

In Haskell, that really only applies to functions which are defined with a
single equation, or with mutually exclusive patterns.  If a function is
defined with multiple equations that have overlapping patterns, e.g.

        f 0 = 42
        f _ = 43

then you can't consider that as a set of equations, instead it is
actually an abbreviation for

        f x = case x of
                0 -> 42
                _ -> 43

Consider the difference between that function and

        f _ = 43
        f 0 = 42

-- 
Fergus Henderson <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>  |  "I have always known that the pursuit
WWW: <http://www.cs.mu.oz.au/~fjh>  |  of excellence is a lethal habit"
PGP: finger [EMAIL PROTECTED]        |     -- the last words of T. S. Garp.