This is the normal situation for functional (as opposed to imperative)
languages.
Benefits:
1) Transparency - it is far easier to reason about a program that is free
from side effects. So
you can prove your program is correct with less effort.
2) Scalability - pure (side-effect free) programs are much easier to
parallelize
3) Learning - variables in functional programs are the same as variables in
mathematics - you don't
have to learn a new concept (assingment)
4) Debugging - no need to monitor when a variable changes value.
5) Power - you can bind a variable to a function definition, then it can be
passed as the argument
of a function (see FXSL)
Downsides:
1) Performance - functional languages are stil slower than imperative
languages, although the gap is closing.
2) Large scale program structure - OO programming seems to have the
advantage here.
From: Steve <subsume(_at_)gmail(_dot_)com>
Reply-To: xsl-list(_at_)lists(_dot_)mulberrytech(_dot_)com
To: xsl-list(_at_)lists(_dot_)mulberrytech(_dot_)com
Subject: Re: [xsl] Re: Keeping a running total?
Date: Wed, 12 Jul 2006 12:52:59 -0400
Forgive me for the tangent, especially if it sounds ignorant, but as a
newbie to XSL I have a hard time understanding the benefit in not
being able to redefine a variable. While I do not doubt the talent
and genius that went into the above examples and speculations, I can't
imagine a benefit that outweighs the time economics involved in coming
up with the above solutions, versus simply doing a $variable =
$variable - $x and being done with it in 10ish lines.
Comments welcome.
-Steve
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