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From: Thomas 'PointedEars' Lahn <PointedEars@web.de>
Reply-To: Thomas 'PointedEars' Lahn <cljs@PointedEars.de>
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Date: Wed, 01 Feb 2012 21:45:58 +0100
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Subject: Re: Comparing arraies
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Michael Haufe (TNO) wrote:

> On Jan 31, 10:08 am, John G Harris <j...@nospam.demon.co.uk> wrote:
>> If you want to describe side effects then you have to say that the
>> function is from system state to system state. The input state includes
>> places to hold the arguments, and places holding anything else that
>> affects the result. The output state includes a place to hold the
>> result, if any, and places holding the consequences of side effects,
>> including the effects of an exception.
> 
> That is one possible method, but neither the 'function' of JavaScript
> or any other language you've mentioned do this. To repeat what has
> been said earlier: it does not matter what word is used in the
> language, 'function' is not a true function in the mathematical sense,
> nor can all of the operators of the language.

I have to disagree here.  That the outcome of a programmatic function, given 
the same arguments in the same order, is not necessarily the same always, 
and there may be side-effects, is what distinguishes it from a programmatic 
operator.

With such a programmatic operator, by definition the outcome must be the 
same given the same operand(s) in the same order (or the operator becomes 
ambiguous and useless).  It is therefore an non-injective *mathematical* 
function of the operands, from the sets that the operands may belong to, to 
the set of the result type.  But it is _not_ a function in the *syntax* of 
any programming language, not even C++, because you *need to* tell the two 
kinds apart to make sense of the syntax, i. e. to parse the program.


PointedEars
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