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 autolearn=unavailable autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 Path: eternal-september.org!reader01.eternal-september.org!reader02.eternal-september.org!news.eternal-september.org!feeder.eternal-september.org!v102.xanadu-bbs.net!xanadu-bbs.net!nntp.club.cc.cmu.edu!micro-heart-of-gold.mit.edu!newsswitch.lcs.mit.edu!nntp.TheWorld.com!.POSTED!not-for-mail From: Robert A Duff Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada Subject: Re: some trivial questions? Date: Mon, 06 Nov 2017 17:43:59 -0500 Organization: The World Public Access UNIX, Brookline, MA Message-ID: References: <6a5368c5-f015-4dcb-9291-e77b40fa1bf1@googlegroups.com> <986529133.531264479.926967.laguest-archeia.com@nntp.aioe.org> NNTP-Posting-Host: shell02.theworld.com Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain X-Trace: pcls7.std.com 1510008238 17417 192.74.137.72 (6 Nov 2017 22:43:58 GMT) X-Complaints-To: abuse@TheWorld.com NNTP-Posting-Date: Mon, 6 Nov 2017 22:43:58 +0000 (UTC) User-Agent: Gnus/5.13 (Gnus v5.13) Emacs/24.3 (gnu/linux) Cancel-Lock: sha1:o4YHBi+F+FDz8HX2dXhoFhbiZ5Q= Xref: news.eternal-september.org comp.lang.ada:48749 Date: 2017-11-06T17:43:59-05:00 List-Id: Luke A. Guest writes: > In maths a function returns something, well it maps one set onto another, > but you get the idea. A procedure is a bunch of steps that don't return a > value. Well, yes, but Ada isn't maths. An Ada function can have side effects. And if it has no side effects, it describes a bunch of steps that compute a maths function. It seems wrong to say that an Ada function that computes the maths factorial function IS that maths function. The Ada function is a "procedure" or "method" (one of many) for computing that maths function. - Bob