Go rant

[Daniel de Kok]

On 2009-12-22 14:24:41 +0100, Andrei Alexandrescu 
<SeeWebsiteForEmail at erdani.org> said:
> Daniel de Kok wrote:
>> ...in pure FP. Of course, another problem is that some algorithms are 
>> inherently imperative. For instance, I find calculating the edit 
>> distance in a performant manner ugly in functional languages.
> 
> So then I guess I can be given a break about FP ueber alles.

Hey, it's not me arguing for that. I think every paradigm has its place...

And I am not in for parotting the 'we absolutely need pure FP for a 
multicore world' stanza. While full purity certainly helps for 
lock-free programming, it reduces the world to one where there are no 
embarassingly parallel programs. In natural language parsing we get 
(nearly) linear speedup without purity, with single-thread processes 
(just split a corpus in N parts, and run a parser for each part). Or if 
you do vector/matrix calculations on a GPU it's also a mutable world 
(with the exception of texture memory).

Of course, there are good counter-examples where purity helps. But it's 
not a black-white world. Not that I really have to say that on a D list 
;-).

-- Daniel