Of what use is 'lambda'???

[Grant Edwards]

In article <mailman.970042721.3851.python-list at python.org>, jurgen.defurne at philips.com wrote:

>It would be possible, if you can read the state from the telco
>switch, instead of keeping a model of your switch in memory. If
>the language really forces you to do that, then you need to
>think deeper about the hardware. In this case you need to build
>a switch with an input (for switching) and an output (to report
>its state back to the program).

All you've done is move the memory containing the system state
to a different physical location.

The problem is that for real world applications, many things
are by definition not functional.  You can shove them off into
the corner and draw lines to separate the functional and
non-functional parts of your system, but the real, physical
world is basically non-functional.

However, clearly dividing the functional and non-functional
parts of a system is still a very useful thing to do, and using
functional programming for the functional parts of the system
has many advantages (testing is easier, for one thing).

-- 
Grant Edwards                   grante             Yow!  I'm having BEAUTIFUL
                                  at               THOUGHTS about the INSIPID
                               visi.com            WIVES of smug and wealthy
                                                   CORPORATE LAWYERS...