Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!husc6!hao!gatech!mcnc!uvaarpa!virginia!babbage!mac3n
From: mac3n@babbage.acc.virginia.edu (Alex Colvin)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.misc
Subject: Re: Modern langauges (what's modern?)
Message-ID: <140@babbage.acc.virginia.edu>
Date: 13 Jan 88 14:36:18 GMT
References: <enea.2553> <1520@ogcvax.UUCP> <2570@enea.se> <1949@pdn.UUCP> <462@dcl-csvax.comp.lancs.ac.uk>
Organization: University of Virginia
Lines: 18
Summary: Lucid - The Dataflow language

In article <462@dcl-csvax.comp.lancs.ac.uk>, craig@comp.lancs.ac.uk (Craig) writes:
> that iteration and recursion are equivalent why not then just stick to
> recursion, sure make it look iterative (so that we all don't get technology 
> shock :-)) but remove iteration from the program model (we could talk about
> GOTOs if you like :-) :-)).  The actor model and continuations have a solution
> to distributing recursion, why not use it.

Iteration and recursion aren't quite the same: only some cases of
recursion are iterative.  Those are usually easier to describe with
iterative constructs. 

As for single-assignment languages, check out Lucid (the stream
language, not the Lisp sublanguage). 

One problem I have with Lucid (and Icon, for that matter) is that a
single unit can't easily generate several unsynchronized streams.  This
makes it really hard to generate intermittent debugging messages without
destroying your program.