From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Received: (from majordomo@localhost) by pauillac.inria.fr (8.7.6/8.7.3) id XAA17827; Wed, 6 Jun 2001 23:08:53 +0200 (MET DST) X-Authentication-Warning: pauillac.inria.fr: majordomo set sender to owner-caml-list@pauillac.inria.fr using -f Received: (from weis@localhost) by pauillac.inria.fr (8.7.6/8.7.3) id XAA17769 for caml-list@pauillac.inria.fr; Wed, 6 Jun 2001 23:08:52 +0200 (MET DST) Received: from nez-perce.inria.fr (nez-perce.inria.fr [192.93.2.78]) by pauillac.inria.fr (8.7.6/8.7.3) with ESMTP id VAA16510 for ; Wed, 6 Jun 2001 21:55:36 +0200 (MET DST) Received: from localhost.localdomain (jimbo115.zip.com.au [202.7.67.115]) by nez-perce.inria.fr (8.11.1/8.10.0) with ESMTP id f56JtWn04490 for ; Wed, 6 Jun 2001 21:55:33 +0200 (MET DST) Received: from ozemail.com.au (IDENT:root@localhost [127.0.0.1]) by localhost.localdomain (8.9.3/8.8.7) with ESMTP id FAA06277; Thu, 7 Jun 2001 05:55:13 +1000 Message-ID: <3B1E8AA1.22B71FA5@ozemail.com.au> Date: Thu, 07 Jun 2001 05:55:13 +1000 From: John Max Skaller X-Mailer: Mozilla 4.7 [en] (X11; I; Linux 2.2.12-20 i686) X-Accept-Language: en MIME-Version: 1.0 To: William Chesters CC: caml-list@inria.fr Subject: Re: [Caml-list] ocaml complexity References: <20010606095041.A93623@caddr.com> <15134.34352.642598.605606@beertje.william.bogus> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Sender: owner-caml-list@pauillac.inria.fr Precedence: bulk William Chesters wrote: > The really big cultural shift is to think in recursive not iterative > terms. I don't agree. It does take time to learn to use recursion and inductive data types effectively, but they exist in C++ too. The really BIG culture shift, in my opinion, is something much simpler: syntax. I think humans, particularly experts, can read programs by high speed unconscious pattern matching that is _highly_ sensitive to syntactic form, and even lexicology. Just try reading C++ or Ocaml which is not sensibly indented to see what I mean, or switch the colours around in your favourite colourizing editor to get immediate vertigo and loss of comprehension. Or have a look at the arguments about which operator to use for some feature. Syntax is more important than most of us think. -- John (Max) Skaller, mailto:skaller@maxtal.com.au 10/1 Toxteth Rd Glebe NSW 2037 Australia voice: 61-2-9660-0850 checkout Vyper http://Vyper.sourceforge.net download Interscript http://Interscript.sourceforge.net ------------------- To unsubscribe, mail caml-list-request@inria.fr. Archives: http://caml.inria.fr