From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.4.4 (2020-01-24) on polar.synack.me X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-1.3 required=5.0 tests=BAYES_00,INVALID_MSGID autolearn=no autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit X-Google-Thread: 103376,c7d533acec91ae16 X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public From: Robert Dewar Subject: Re: Question for the folks who designed Ada95 Date: 1999/04/30 Message-ID: <7gdah8$j2p$1@nnrp1.dejanews.com>#1/1 X-Deja-AN: 472896234 References: <7g2qu4$ca4$1@usenet.rational.com> <7g3b5g$p92$1@nnrp1.dejanews.com> <7g4ae3$hjh2@ftp.kvaerner.com> <3725C49E.8106A44B@aasaa.ofe.org> <7g4mrs$v5n$1@nnrp1.dejanews.com> <7g72rf$hjh3@ftp.kvaerner.com> <7g7g3j$f95$1@nnrp1.dejanews.com> <7g7hbe$gn5$1@nnrp1.dejanews.com> X-Http-Proxy: 1.0 x14.dejanews.com:80 (Squid/1.1.22) for client 205.232.38.14 Organization: Deja News - The Leader in Internet Discussion X-Article-Creation-Date: Fri Apr 30 22:23:40 1999 GMT Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada X-Http-User-Agent: Mozilla/4.04 [en] (OS/2; I) Date: 1999-04-30T00:00:00+00:00 List-Id: In article , Robert A Duff wrote: > I have also pondered the idea of having a language where function > calls with side effects have a different notation than function calls > without. But the trouble is that the concept of a function with side effects is a conceptual one, not one that can be usefully defined or enforced. Which of the following have side effects 1. A function that delays ten seconds before returning by looping 2. A memo function using an internal table 3. A function with instrumentation logging parameters used to call it I would say typically that 1. had side effects, and that 2 and 3 do not, but any formal attempt to distinguish the concepts (let alone insist on different syntax) would probably make exactly the opposite categorization! -----------== Posted via Deja News, The Discussion Network ==---------- http://www.dejanews.com/ Search, Read, Discuss, or Start Your Own