Path: utzoo!utgpu!watserv1!watmath!att!occrsh!uokmax!d.cs.okstate.edu!norman
From: norman@d.cs.okstate.edu (Norman Graham)
Newsgroups: comp.theory
Subject: Re: Why not multiple out parameters? [again]
Message-ID: <1990Sep11.180516.27065@d.cs.okstate.edu>
Date: 11 Sep 90 18:05:16 GMT
References: <3788@osc.COM>
Organization: Oklahoma State University
Lines: 17

From article <3788@osc.COM>, by jgk@osc.COM (Joe Keane):
> 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?

Counter Example. In my favourite language, Miranda, every function 
takes exactly one value and returns exactly one value. The question
of whether either of those values are tuples (i.e. values of a product
type--think of cartesian products of sets here) is irrelevant.

This sort of behaviour corresponds well with the set-theoretic view of
a function--a map from one set to another.
-- 
Norman Graham                            Oklahoma State University
  Internet:  norman@a.cs.okstate.edu     Computing and Information Sciences
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     {cbosgd,rutgers}!okstate!norman     Stillwater, OK  USA  74078-0599