Graham Klyne
Can it truly be said that it's easier to analyze a functional expression than a C program? What could that actually mean? I feel the discussion is (so far) missing a trick, but I'm not sure what it is.
The LtU article "What good is strong normalization in programming languages?"[1] may be helpful here. Barry Jay's comment about always terminating data access plus loops or fixpoints interests me in particular. I wonder, would it be useful to have a language designed entirely that way? Could you have a terminating language with only a single top level loop? Could any two programs be composed such that the result still only has a single top level loop? Would a language structured that way be advantageous for debugging, proof assistants, or other verifications? [1] http://lambda-the-ultimate.org/node/view/1120 -- Shae Matijs Erisson - http://www.ScannedInAvian.com/ - Sockmonster once said: You could switch out the unicycles for badgers, and the game would be the same.