Re: Avoiding side effects

[Anders Wirzenius <anders@no.email.thanks.invalid>]

"(see below)" <yaldnif.w@blueyonder.co.uk> writes:

> On 07/10/2008 12:08, in article wvbrfxn8hdc7.fsf@sun.com, "Ole-Hjalmar
> Kristensen" <ole-hjalmar.kristensen@substitute_employer_here.com> wrote:
> 
> > Yes, I think any program which use a read/write interface to a file
> > will have side effects in that sense. The only way I can think of for
> > avoiding this would be to mmap the whole file, then it will appear as
> > an array of bytes.
> 
> Why would stepping through an array not be thought a "side" effect?

A function that returns the row of that array and only that
would perhaps be a function without side effects. The information
in that row can be fetched when needed.

-- 
Anders