On Thu, Mar 24, 2011 at 7:14 AM, Sandro Magi <[email protected]>wrote:

> On 23/03/2011 5:56 PM, Jonathan S. Shapiro wrote:
> > Among other consequences, this means that in a language having init-only
> > fields and inner-references, a structure consisting exclusively of
> > init-only fields is not necessarily pure...
>
> I'm not sure the example implies this conclusion. 'Container' clearly is
> not init-only. Is it really surprising that introducing mutability
> anywhere in a path means the purity of our immutable structures changes?
>

I agree that it's not surprising. What *is* surprising is that a structure
consisting entirely of init-only fields may not be pure. It's surprising in
the sense that it will lead programmers to surprising outcomes.


> The example you provided is a hazard of working with any sort of
> mutability, and I wouldn't fret over it.


Either we care about a pure programming model or we don't. If we do, then we
need to be clear about the conditions under which purity is enforced.

shap
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