Path: utzoo!yunexus!geac!syntron!jtsv16!uunet!seismo!sundc!pitstop!sun!amdcad!ames!haven!umbc3!alex
From: alex@umbc3.UMD.EDU (Alex S. Crain)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.lisp
Subject: Re: permutations
Message-ID: <1295@umbc3.UMD.EDU>
Date: 25 Oct 88 18:04:18 GMT
Article-I.D.: umbc3.1295
References: <1131@amelia.nas.nasa.gov> <5671@eagle.ukc.ac.uk>
Reply-To: alex@umbc3.UMD.EDU (Alex S. Crain)
Organization: University of Maryland, Baltimore County
Lines: 34

In article <5671@eagle.ukc.ac.uk> jrc@ukc.ac.uk (J.R.Cupitt) writes:

	[lisp code for permutations function deleted]

>Good grief! I almost collapsed when I saw this .. I realise that this is a
>LISP group, but I can't resist posting the same algorithm in Miranda:

	[miranda code for permutations function deleted]

	I don't understand the motive behind this. matrix multiplication
is easier in Berkeley fp than it is in Lisp, but that doesn't make it a 
superior language. The permutation function is probably easy in APL too...

	I can understand the taunts from POPLOG users, in that POPLOG is all
of CL plus an alternate interface (several in fact) and while I've never used
POPLOG, it sounds like a nice extension package to CL, which could prove 
useful in certain situations. My understanding of Miranda, however, is that
it is a purely functional language, and therefore not directly related to
CL, which lost most of its function roots long ago. 

	I would have liked to see alternative suggestions for the permutations
function in lisp, and would have tried to offer some if I wasn't so busy right
now. I don't care much for the map* functions, and am always looking at
alternate styles to code mapping problems. "My language is better then your
language" I really don't need.




-- 
					:alex.
					Systems Programmer
nerwin!alex@umbc3.umd.edu		UMBC
alex@umbc3.umd.edu