Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!ucsd!sdcsvax!ngagi.ucsd.edu!djohnson
From: djohnson@ngagi.ucsd.edu (Darin Johnson)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.functional
Subject: Re: The name of the game
Message-ID: <8165@sdcsvax.UCSD.Edu>
Date: 15 Apr 90 02:55:49 GMT
Sender: nobody@sdcsvax.UCSD.Edu
Reply-To: djohnson@ngagi.ucsd.edu (Darin Johnson)
Organization: CSE Dept., U. C. San Diego
Lines: 14

SML (Standard ML) is often described of as a functional language.
However, SML allows changing values (if the name is suitably declared) -
and hence allows side effects.  Should SML then be considered a
functional language?  If not, what about the fact that SML has lots
of features traditionally associated with functional languages
(pattern matching, etc)?

(Also, SML allows statements to be explicitly executed sequentially,
which although not strictly forbidden for functional languages, makes
putting side effects in functions easier.  Makes putting print statements
for debugging in the code much easier...)

Darin Johnson
djohnson@ucsd.edu