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=-1.9 required=5.0 tests=BAYES_00,FREEMAIL_FROM autolearn=ham autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit X-Google-Thread: 103376,f3437064e1091fec X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public X-Google-ArrivalTime: 2003-07-13 20:01:45 PST Path: archiver1.google.com!news1.google.com!newsfeed.stanford.edu!cyclone.bc.net!nntp.cifnet.net!news-out1.nntp.be!propagator2-sterling!news-in-sterling.nuthinbutnews.com!cyclone1.gnilink.net!spamkiller2.gnilink.net!nwrdny01.gnilink.net.POSTED!53ab2750!not-for-mail From: Hyman Rosen User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.5a) Gecko/20030708 Thunderbird/0.1a X-Accept-Language: en-us, en MIME-Version: 1.0 Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada Subject: Re: What evil would happen? References: <5ad0dd8a.0307111151.4a08f95a@posting.google.com> <1LEPa.9034$nP.7178@newsfep4-winn.server.ntli.net> <5ad0dd8a.0307120426.226775f1@posting.google.com> <5ad0dd8a.0307130417.41548778@posting.google.com> In-Reply-To: Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Message-ID: Date: Mon, 14 Jul 2003 03:01:43 GMT NNTP-Posting-Host: 162.84.202.76 X-Complaints-To: abuse@verizon.net X-Trace: nwrdny01.gnilink.net 1058151703 162.84.202.76 (Sun, 13 Jul 2003 23:01:43 EDT) NNTP-Posting-Date: Sun, 13 Jul 2003 23:01:43 EDT Xref: archiver1.google.com comp.lang.ada:40250 Date: 2003-07-14T03:01:43+00:00 List-Id: Chad R. Meiners wrote: > In mathematics, functions only return single elements, which may be a > composite of some sort. As I have said before, one of the most fundamental mistakes made by academics who get involved in computing is to forget that programming languages are a means of instructing a computer to accomplish a task, not a reification of some abstract concept whose beauty and purity must be preserved at all costs.