Odd Errors

[Lawrence D'Oliveiro]

In message <pan.2008.10.01.09.44.17 at REMOVE.THIS.cybersource.com.au>, Steven
D'Aprano wrote:

> On Wed, 01 Oct 2008 22:14:49 +1300, Lawrence D'Oliveiro wrote:
> 
>> In message
>> <1b1ed34d-f386-4389-a7f1-ce68be4e2a14 at k30g2000hse.googlegroups.com>,
>> Aaron "Castironpi" Brady wrote:
>> 
>>> Do you ever want to scream from the rooftops, "'append' operates by
>>> side-effect!"?
>> 
>> No. It's an effect, not a side-effect.
> 
> "Side-effect" has the technical meaning in functional languages of any
> change of state that isn't the creation and return of a function result.

"Side" means that it happens as the by-product of returning a function
result. "<list>.append" isn't a function, it's a procedure. Hence the
modification of the list is the primary effect, not a side effect.