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From: ok@goanna.cs.rmit.edu.au (Richard A. O'Keefe)
Subject: Re: What's the best language to start with? [was: Re: Should I learn
 C or Pascal?]
Date: 1996/09/11
Message-ID: <515mq2$bri@goanna.cs.rmit.edu.au>#1/1
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references: <01bb9a1e$24c669e0$32ee6fcf@timhome2>
 <50p68s$cpi@zeus.orl.mmc.com> 	<51368e$6ir@goanna.cs.rmit.edu.au>
 <JSA.96Sep10143045@alexandria>
organization: Comp Sci, RMIT, Melbourne, Australia
newsgroups: comp.lang.c,comp.lang.c++,comp.unix.programmer,comp.lang.ada
nntp-posting-user: ok
Date: 1996-09-11T00:00:00+00:00
List-Id: <comp.lang.ada>


jsa@alexandria (Jon S Anthony) writes:
>Hmmm, I am somewhat surprised that you of all people would not include
>Prolog in that list.  What's the scoop?

Prolog is a hybrid of a weak declarative language (weak because the
traditional Prolog implementation doesn't quite match the semantics of
Horn clause programs, and the difference sometimes matters a lot)
with a rather limited imperative language.  It is an _extremely_ practical
tool, but almost all Prolog programs make use of the non-declarative parts
of the language.  In the same way, Lisp is an _exceptionally_ practical tool
for almost every kind of programming, including writing web servers and
operating systems, but it is not a _pure_ declarative language, so didn't
make it into the list of declarative languages.  Mercury _is_ on the list
because the _implemented_ semantics of any Mercury program coincides with
its theoretical semantics as a Horn clause program.

For what it's worth, I do not accept _any_ of the OOP languages I listed
in my previous message as in any way declarative.  This is not to say that
you couldn't have a declarative OOP language; it is arguable that Haskell
is one.
-- 
Australian citizen since 14 August 1996.  *Now* I can vote the xxxs out!
Richard A. O'Keefe; http://www.cs.rmit.edu.au/%7Eok; RMIT Comp.Sci.