From: ser@... (Sean Russell) Date: 2004-07-11T03:57:29+09:00 Subject: Re: Functional Ruby (Re: Why I don't use Ruby.) "Sean O'Dell" wrote in message news:<200407091430.02799.sean@celsoft.com>... > You can modify values, as long as the value isn't a global (stateful data). > The key is that the function has to represent the modification, so that when > you call it with a given set of values, it always does the same thing. Sean, scope has nothing to do with this. It has to do with state, within or without of any given scope. If you have a "variable" -- some alias to a value -- and you change it, even within a limited scope, you've changed state. Re-assignments are not allowed in pure functional programming languages. --- SER