Erlang questions on comp.lang.functional.

[Marc Ernst Eddy van Woerkom]

> I think the reality is it is impossible to build a programming language
> that doesn't have side effects. 

It starts with I/O, which is done as side effect in Prolog. :) 

I wonder how I/O is considered by strict functional programmers,
a function like

 int f() = return len(readkbdstring)

isn't supposed to always return the same value, or?
Worse, it is not even predictable.

Now go from I/O to networked I/O. 


> (I hate prolog)

When I hit Turbo Prolog in my youth, I had no clue what it was about. 
I thought it was some crazy AI toy (wasn't it marketed as expert system? :)
that couldn't work anyway. Thus I threw it in the corner.

Only a year or two ago, I was shown the light, that the power of
mathematical logics is at the root of it. :)

Regards,
Marc