Of what use is 'lambda'???

[Kragen Sitaker]

In article <39cbda82.38443020 at news.bright.net>,
Jonadab the Unsightly One <jonadab at bright.net> wrote:
>I have a question.  What is the difference between functional
>programming and procedural programming?  I know I should know
>this, but...

That's a difficult question.  Here are some attempts at answers:
- functional functions always return the same results when applied to
  the same arguments and have no side effects.
- in functional programming, state is explicit; in procedural
  programming, state is implicit.  Thus, in functional programs,
  problem time (as the problem proceeds from one state to the next) and
  CPU time (as the CPU proceeds from one instruction to the next)
  become disconnected.
- functional programs define functions in terms of other functions;
  procedural programs describe how to compute things, one step after
  another.
- functional programmers are a bunch of academics who think up
  impractical ideas like garbage collection, arbitrary-precision
  numbers, massively parallel computers, and programming languages that
  compile into hardware designs, while procedural programmers get real
  work done, with a schedule and a budget to overrun.  Real work like
  payroll.


-- 
<kragen at pobox.com>       Kragen Sitaker     <http://www.pobox.com/~kragen/>
Perilous to all of us are the devices of an art deeper than we ourselves
possess.
                -- Gandalf the Grey [J.R.R. Tolkien, "Lord of the Rings"]