Functions vs OOP

[William Gill]

On 9/4/2011 7:41 PM, Steven D'Aprano wrote:
> William Gill wrote:
>
>> The source of my error is "Functional Programming HOWTO
>> (/python-3.1.3-docs-html/howto/functional.html)"
>
> For those who don't have access to William's local file system, I expect
> he's looking at this:
>
> http://docs.python.org/release/3.1.3/howto/functional.html
>
> or the most recent version:
>
> http://docs.python.org/dev/howto/functional.html

I didn't expect anyone to access my file system so I trimmed the path, 
but left enough for an industrious soul like yourself to figure it out. 
  You did, so it seems I was correct, or do you think "functional.html" 
would have been sufficient? ;-)

>
> [...]
>> If you read the material with even a nominal understanding of the
>> functional paradigm (functional relationships in a mathematical sense,
>> not functions in the procedural sense), it is clear.  If you read it
>> without consciously recognizing this difference, the material does
>> nothing to alert you to the initial error.
>
> What about the entire "Introduction" section, which starts with this
> statement?
>
> "This section explains the basic concept of functional programming"

Which clears up the misunderstanding, how?  Unless the target audience 
is people who already understands "the basic concept of functional 
programming."  That seems like a circular reference.

The article is introducing a concept.  To assume any familiarity with 
that concept as a basis, is not an introduction.

As previously stated; I was already familiar with the concepts of 
procedural, declarative, and object-oriented programming, but not 
functional programming.  Nothing I read (I'll be honest; scanned) did 
anything to contradict my incorrect point of reference.

> If you would like to suggest improvements, please do so.

How about a caveat stating something like "NOTE: functional as in 
mathematical functions, not to be confused with functions/procedures."