[Haskell-cafe] Re: Channel9 Interview: Software Composability and theFu ture of Languages

[Magnus Therning]

On Thu, Feb 01, 2007 at 09:24:03 +0000, Dougal Stanton wrote:
[..]
>I'm going to go out on a limb here and suggest that, like Feynman's
>example of how people count in their heads, both of these explanations
>are accurate. If I were to explain the process to someone it would be
>in the imperative style: literally "giving commands", which is what a
>recipe is. But in my mind I imagine it as the gradual process of
>stirring milk into a base, which is far more adequately described in
>the functional style.
>
>The question is --- how would an expert describe such a process? Would
>a professional chef give instructions in the functional or imperative
>style? I think that is relevant, since the approach to the problem may
>change depending on proficiency. We may *learn* in the imperative style
>but *think* in the functional.

There may be something in what you say.  I kind of like it :-)  Of
course it makes me wonder if we have to _learn_ how to _learn_ in the
functional style.  I am convinced _some_ people are able to learn in
that way, I doubt all are.

/M

-- 
Magnus Therning                             (OpenPGP: 0xAB4DFBA4)
magnus at therning.org             Jabber: magnus.therning at gmail.com
http://therning.org/magnus
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: not available
Type: application/pgp-signature
Size: 189 bytes
Desc: not available
Url : http://www.haskell.org/pipermail/haskell-cafe/attachments/20070201/c849e88b/attachment.bin