From: zuzu <sean.zuzu@...>
Date: 2004-07-14T10:48:41+09:00
Subject: Re: Functional Ruby (Re: Why I don't use Ruby.)

On Wed, 14 Jul 2004 08:29:53 +0900, Sean O'Dell <sean@celsoft.com> wrote:
> On Tuesday 13 July 2004 16:12, Florian Gross wrote:
> > Sean O'Dell wrote:
> > >
> > > I just found a great primer on FP, and I think I have either forgotten a
> > > lot of it from my LISP days, or LISP never had these FP features I'm
> > > reading about.  This is really a very authoritative, clear and concise
> > > explanation:
> > >
> > >     http://www.cs.nyu.edu/goldberg/pubs/gold96.pdf
> >
> > Heh, I actually meant to say what's written there on the first page with
> > all that "variables are just aliases" speech.
> >
> > If you intended to say this, too, then we're already agreeing here. :)
> 
> Well, I was talking about variables, but I realized after looking at that
> primer that I think most people were talking about "macros" or, at least,
> that's what I remember calling them.  It's been a long time, and LISP was my
> only exposure to FP, really.  I think I was mis-understanding some of the
> terms people were using.

waaaaaay back in the thread, i said:

also, assignment in ruby is much improved over von neumann C-style
assignment.  in ruby assignment is merely the naming of objects for
convenient reference (like pointers). see "Assignment" @
http://www.rubycentral.com/book/tut_expressions.html  correct me if
i'm wrong, but isn't this essentially what functional programming
languages call "macros"?

i suppose this has been clarified?


> > (Which means that this special aliasing assignment can be done via an
> > operator-style syntax or a function-call-style syntax. This also means
> > that operators and functions are actually the same things with different
> > syntaxes. :))
> >
> > Oh, and I think that let x = y is actually an operator-style syntax.
> 
> It sure is; I think I just got a really skewed version of FP in my head.
> 
>         Sean O'Dell
> 
>