Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!usc!chaph.usc.edu!usc.edu!news From: news@usc.edu Newsgroups: comp.lang.functional Subject: Re: Why not multiple out parameters? [again] Message-ID: <11929@chaph.usc.edu> Date: 12 Sep 90 00:40:31 GMT References: <1990Aug28.203643.11214@zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu> <4019@rex.cs.tulane.edu> <2501@l.cc.purdue.edu> <4060@rex.cs.tulane.edu> <3352@stl.stc.co.uk> <3788@osc.COM> Sender: news@chaph.usc.edu Reply-To: raulmill@usc.edu Organization: University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA Lines: 18 Nntp-Posting-Host: girtab.usc.edu In-reply-to: jgk@osc.COM's message of 11 Sep 90 09:44:45 GMT Originator: news@girtab.usc.edu In article <3788@osc.COM> jgk@osc.COM (Joe Keane) writes: I think returning a record just gets around the issue. We don't use a single record to pass all the in parameters to a function, so why should we do it for out parameters? What's wrong with getting around the issue? I can see the need for having two "in parameters" (otherwise, joining hitherto distinct pieces of information is akward), but I fail to see the need for multiple "out parameters" in a functional language. Excuse me for being dense, but what is the range? If you need to do something on the order of passing different pieces of information (about some core datum) to multiple function applications, the proper way would seem to be to construct some derived function which applies the base functions properly. (e.g. J's conjunctions)