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From: liberte@uiucdcsb.CS.UIUC.EDU
Newsgroups: net.lang
Subject: Re: Functional vs. Object-Oriented
Message-ID: <8900037@uiucdcsb>
Date: Tue, 1-Jul-86 13:08:00 EDT
Article-I.D.: uiucdcsb.8900037
Posted: Tue Jul  1 13:08:00 1986
Date-Received: Fri, 4-Jul-86 09:36:40 EDT
References: <8900035@uiucdcsb>
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Nf-ID: #R:uiucdcsb:8900035:uiucdcsb:8900037:000:1271
Nf-From: uiucdcsb.CS.UIUC.EDU!liberte    Jul  1 12:08:00 1986


The concept of polar relationships between opposites has always
fascinated me.  The "functional vs. object-oriented" polarity is
one of several to be found in computer science as well as
many other fields of study.

>>Also, since they contradict either other, they can't both
>>be right, right?
>>
>My first thought is that I've heard other such clashes of symbols 
>before.  The one that comes first to mind is the dispute between wave 
>theories and corpuscular theories of light. (Any further discussion of 
>...

Without delving into too much philosophy, it is educational to list
other such polarites in computer science.  Here is a sample:

viewing data as programs vs. viewing programs as data
lexical vs. dynamic scoping
top-down vs. bottom-up design
top-down vs. bottom-up taxonomy of sorting algorithms
symbolic vs. numeric computation
counting vs. estimating
menu vs. command interfaces

to touch on a few diverse areas.  I will gladly collect any others
people wish to mail me and post a summary.  There must be hundreds
within computer science alone.


Daniel LaLiberte   217-333-8740
University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
Department of Computer Science
1304 W Springfield
Urbana, IL  61801

liberte@b.cs.uiuc.edu
liberte@uiuc.csnet
ihnp4!uiucdcs!liberte