Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!hsdndev!wuarchive!uunet!mcsun!unido!ztivax!corvara
From: corvara@ztivax.UUCP (Dr Gerd Venzl)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.functional
Subject: functional programming formulation of graph algorithms
Keywords: functional programming, graph theory
Message-ID: <5332@ztivax.UUCP>
Date: 27 May 91 13:02:26 GMT
Reply-To: roessel@ztivax.siemens.com (Torsten Roessel)
Organization: Siemens AG, Munich, W-Germany
Lines: 18

Some months ago somewhere in the literature I found a statement like

   "Functional programming is not well suited for algorithms of graph
    theory as these usually make frequent use of side effects."

When I tried to write down a purely functional formulation of some
manipulations on binary decision diagrams I found that indeed to be
quite a difficult and unnatural task. Are there really fundamental
reasons for these difficulties to arise or is my vision and understanding
of graph algorithms just too imperative? Are there any published attempts
to give functional formulations of graph algorithms? Any opinions from
netland?

Please reply by email, I will summarize if there is sufficient feedback.

Torsten Roessel
Siemens AG, Munich (FRG)
InterNet: roessel@ztivax.siemens.com