[EMAIL PROTECTED] (Robert Land) writes:
> On Fri, Dec 13, 2002 at 11:23:43AM -0500, Derrick 'dman' Hudson wrote:
>> "imperative" and "procedural" are the same thing, and C is a prime
>> example. It is such because the structure of a C program is a
>> collection of procedures which start with "main". Each procedure is a
>> linear list of statements to be executed in order.
>
> Could you specify a "linear list" more clearly? - the
> contrary would be a "nonlinear list" which on the first
> view seems to be self-contradictory.
For example, in C:
int fib(int n)
{
if (n < 2)
return n;
return fib(n-2) + fib(n-1);
}
the rules require that fib(n-2) is called before fib(n-1). In Scheme:
(define (fib n)
(if (< n 2)
n
(+ (fib (- n 2)) (fib (- n 1)))))
the recursive function calls can happen in either order, and I believe
it's even semantically correct for e.g. both function call parameters
to be evaluated before either function is called (again, C and ilk
strictly specify this order).
--
David Maze [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://people.debian.org/~dmaze/
"Theoretical politics is interesting. Politicking should be illegal."
-- Abra Mitchell
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