Re: [xsl] Functional Programming, "no side effects" and so on...

["M. David Peterson" <m.david@xxxxxxxxxx>]

On Fri, 16 Feb 2007 13:08:36 -0700, Dimitre Novatchev
<dnovatchev@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

> XSLT is a functional language and this is a big topic. This is how I
> explain the lack of responses to the OP -- a good reply could be to
> write a book on this topic.

That would make for a *GREAT* book!  Of course, as luck would have it, I
just so happen to know a few folks who could help make that happen.  Feel
free to let me know when you want me to do just that ;) :D


> The best explanation of FXSL is in the two papers presented at the
> Extreme Markup Languages Conference (2003, 2006) -- especially the
> latter, which covers FXSL 2 (for XSLT 2.0):
http://www.idealliance.org/papers/extreme/proceedings/xslfo-pdf/2006/Novatche
v01/EML2006Novatchev01.pdf

Agreed.  The above paper *ROCKS*! :D

>   It's a pity that most traditional programming is based on imperative
> languages, which severely undermines the ability of the regular
> programmer to broadly understand a problem, to analyze it
> independently from any implementation choices and in particular to
> think outside of the limited imperative paradigm.

Most definitely agree.  It's a pity for sure.  I'm sure you've already
seen this, Dimitre, but for anyone who has not: An interesting video from
four of the primary language architects at MSFT (Herb Sutter, Erik Meijer,
Brian Beckman, and Anders Hejlsberg) was recently posted to Channel9@MSDN
> http://channel9.msdn.com/Showpost.aspx?postid=273697

This very same topic is covered in great extent, showcasing the obvious
fact that there is definitely quite a bit of momentum (for those familar
with LINQ and its predecessors X# and COmega, it's obvious this is exactly
where things are headed), as well as "one-step-at-a-time" preparations
taking place to continue moving towards a foundation in which functional
programming on the .NET platform reigns supreme.

Dependent upon your platform of choice, F# is something I would spend some
time getting to know as well >
http://research.microsoft.com/fsharp/fsharp.aspx < A good portion of the
Functional-like features of the C# 3.0 compiler  (and if not mistaken,
some of the features of C# 2.0 compiler as well) come directly from this
project.  To put it gently, Don Syme's (the creator of F# -- based out of
MSFT's UK research facility) is *THE MAN*! > http://blogs.msdn.com/dsyme/
< is where you can find his blog.

--
/M:D

M. David Peterson
http://mdavid.name | http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/au/2354