Why functional Python matters

Steve Holden sholden at holdenweb.com
Thu Apr 17 12:02:50 EDT 2003


"Matthew Danish" <mdanish at andrew.cmu.edu> wrote in message
news:20030417114316.M13181 at lain.cheme.cmu.edu...
> On Thu, Apr 17, 2003 at 02:49:33PM +0000, Steve Holden wrote:
> > I can see that, but wouldn't you agree that removing redundant features
also
> > removes cruft from the source, and eases the maintenance burden, in turn
> > reducing the likelihood of implementation bugs? While Guido is known to
> > regret the inclusion of lambda in Python, I don't think he would want to
> > take it out on purely ideological grounds. Indeed, the suggestion was
not so
> > much that it would be taken out of the existing language, rather that it
> > would not be implemented in some "futurePython", normally called Python
3 or
> > Python 3000.
> >
> > It would be nice to have One True Python, but that's about as likely as
One
> > True Lisp. The Python world is pragmatic enough to be able to live with
"one
> > *most obvious* way to do it", but if there are two similar features in
the
> > language they have to be maintained in lockstep as the language
develops.
>
> What's wrong with Python and CL!!!?  They have all these extraneous
> features which can accomplish the same thing!!! All you need is the
> <insert model of computability here>!!! Anything else is liable to
> develop cruft and cause bugs in the single implementation of our ONE
> PURE LANGUAGE!!!  I can't believe that people might want to model
> problems any other way!!!
>

Absolutely. Your pure approach causes me to shed tears of joy. If only
everyone else could see the Truth. In fact, were there endless time, all we
would need would be One True Turing Machine and an Infinite Number of
Monkeys.

Did I mention that you only need nine commands to write any program? ;-)

and-we-could-dispense-with-the-turing-machine-at-a-pinch-ly y'rs  - steve
--
Steve Holden                                  http://www.holdenweb.com/
How lucky am I?      http://www.google.com/search?q=Steve+Holden&btnI=1
Python Web Programming                 http://pydish.holdenweb.com/pwp/








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