From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Return-Path: X-Original-To: caml-list@sympa.inria.fr Delivered-To: caml-list@sympa.inria.fr Received: from mail3-relais-sop.national.inria.fr (mail3-relais-sop.national.inria.fr [192.134.164.104]) by sympa.inria.fr (Postfix) with ESMTPS id 382857EE51 for ; Sat, 25 May 2013 18:53:06 +0200 (CEST) Received-SPF: None (mail3-smtp-sop.national.inria.fr: no sender authenticity information available from domain of krismicinski@gmail.com) identity=pra; client-ip=209.85.219.47; receiver=mail3-smtp-sop.national.inria.fr; envelope-from="krismicinski@gmail.com"; x-sender="krismicinski@gmail.com"; x-conformance=sidf_compatible Received-SPF: Pass (mail3-smtp-sop.national.inria.fr: domain of krismicinski@gmail.com designates 209.85.219.47 as permitted sender) identity=mailfrom; client-ip=209.85.219.47; receiver=mail3-smtp-sop.national.inria.fr; envelope-from="krismicinski@gmail.com"; x-sender="krismicinski@gmail.com"; x-conformance=sidf_compatible; x-record-type="v=spf1" Received-SPF: None (mail3-smtp-sop.national.inria.fr: no sender authenticity information available from domain of postmaster@mail-oa0-f47.google.com) identity=helo; client-ip=209.85.219.47; receiver=mail3-smtp-sop.national.inria.fr; envelope-from="krismicinski@gmail.com"; x-sender="postmaster@mail-oa0-f47.google.com"; x-conformance=sidf_compatible X-IronPort-Anti-Spam-Filtered: true X-IronPort-Anti-Spam-Result: AnIBAGDroFHRVdsvm2dsb2JhbABaxW9/CBYOAQEBAQEGCwsJFCiCIwEBBAFAARsdAQMBCwYFCw0uIgERAQUBHAYTCIdyAQMJBp8+jD+CfYQhChknDViIDAEFDI8RB4NUA5c7j1sWKYRRIA X-IPAS-Result: AnIBAGDroFHRVdsvm2dsb2JhbABaxW9/CBYOAQEBAQEGCwsJFCiCIwEBBAFAARsdAQMBCwYFCw0uIgERAQUBHAYTCIdyAQMJBp8+jD+CfYQhChknDViIDAEFDI8RB4NUA5c7j1sWKYRRIA X-IronPort-AV: E=Sophos;i="4.87,741,1363129200"; d="scan'208";a="15680823" Received: from mail-oa0-f47.google.com ([209.85.219.47]) by mail3-smtp-sop.national.inria.fr with ESMTP/TLS/RC4-SHA; 25 May 2013 18:53:05 +0200 Received: by mail-oa0-f47.google.com with SMTP id m1so7324291oag.20 for ; Sat, 25 May 2013 09:53:03 -0700 (PDT) DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; c=relaxed/relaxed; d=gmail.com; s=20120113; h=mime-version:in-reply-to:references:date:message-id:subject:from:to :cc:content-type; bh=JqOYykfufXB8hvFCL4OPsTulDza+lDbdP3LhJ6qcGcQ=; b=rfzpUJR9OxxIo4PFRZ2tFLmHyJ8vYFvvKaHHQ5ZkUzME0EfRe5VhcKIz1QA6RE6CVo O476xHljRi2JR2xaih8cWSDw/4IT3QpkMMUPvXxmO8FVTcwXtId1ILZ+JDG5JIbR4CuW V84o/v1rmKwGqS1LoRD6VikE6xcxMxu6diH7SA288LyArWTaofYK8hWgqzFaQ3Fy505L JVnhCDd5GCZH0tKBrzTGy47GQpsmm1j/2ghTZ0KPLdtrVXnL0FplhZS9e8JBxGjiH2Ck MapJBLGrOKJ2EoTbmZZbruxHp8VKRKP29PQKk8XIe9rxHwrmoYld+Iv/FCa8BLwN9AFt bobA== MIME-Version: 1.0 X-Received: by 10.60.141.164 with SMTP id rp4mr15277558oeb.38.1369500783658; Sat, 25 May 2013 09:53:03 -0700 (PDT) Received: by 10.182.137.230 with HTTP; Sat, 25 May 2013 09:53:03 -0700 (PDT) In-Reply-To: <20130524233015.GE1923@siouxsie> References: <20130523235355.GI6510@siouxsie> <20130524233015.GE1923@siouxsie> Date: Sat, 25 May 2013 12:53:03 -0400 Message-ID: From: Kristopher Micinski To: oliver Cc: Arnaud Spiwack , OCaML Mailing List Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Subject: Re: [Caml-list] OCaml's variables On Fri, May 24, 2013 at 7:30 PM, oliver wrote: > On Fri, May 24, 2013 at 11:01:39AM +0200, Arnaud Spiwack wrote: >> Why were you astounded? This is a perfectly legitimate/correct use of the >> word "variable". > [...] > > > Do you think so? > > I have thought about making the sentence better, but did not found > a better sentence in short time. > > But name-value-binding is the term that is used in functional languages. > I wonder why the term "variable" pops up there. > And even I understood the sentence, I'm not sure if this might create confusion > to some readers, because the term "variable" is normally not used for functional languages. > > People new to FP will be said, there are no "variables", and then they maybe > will be irritated, if they find that term in a reference-manual. > > Do you see what I mean? > > > Ciao, > Oliver I agree with everyone else, this is a completely legitimate use of the word "variable." As a native english speaker who learned OCaml at a younger age, I don't think the manual should be changed because a beginner might confuse the term "variable" with the name of the thing in C. By the way, when you say: > People new to FP will be said, there are no "variables", and then they maybe > will be irritated, if they find that term in a reference-manual. The person saying this will be incorrect for a number of reasons: 1. OCaml *does* have mutable values, 2. The type of FP you emphasize would be more correctly (to disambiguate from OCaml) as purely functional programming 3. The term variable doesn't make sense here anyway, in FP there are tons of variables just as there are in all of mathematics. What purely functional programming lacks is a notion of mutable state in its operational semantics: you can still add them via monads (of course). Kris