Lawrence D'Oliveiro <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes: > In message <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, Arnaud Delobelle wrote: > >> * you seem to disregard the fact that in 'programming language' there >> is the word 'language'. A language is a way to _communicate_ >> information, in the case of a programming language you communicate >> it to the computer but also to other human beings. > > It was Niklaus Wirth, I think who pointed out that programming languages are > not properly "languages" but are actually "notations". Like mathematics is > a notation.
I suppose anyone could call them what they want. The fact is that they are languages with grammars. Anyway, replace 'language' with 'notation' in my point and it is still meaningful. > And mathematics, too, is a predominantly functional, not a procedural, > notation. Well, mathematics is seldom concerned with procedures, that's true. But mathematics is more preoccupied with relations than functions. > Could that be why so many people are frightened of functional > constructs, like my code example and things like lambdas? Because they > look too much like mathematics? I don't think that people have been frightened by it. They don't think it's expressed elegantly as Python is designed to be used as an imperative language. -- Arnaud -- Arnaud -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
