Name: Anonymous 2017-01-13 15:44
None of these functional programmers, including the Haskell people, seem to have understood Backus's paper. They don't even understand the words in front of them. They think ``no variables'' means no assignment. He very clearly meant no variables as in no variable definitions, only function definitions.
Haskell would not qualify as functional programming by Backus's definition because it has variable definitions. That's the first clue that something is wrong. Either Backus's idea is such a failure that even ``pure functional programmers'' don't want to use it or it's some kind of scam. Backus founded a religion but his own followers don't follow its teachings.
Haskell would not qualify as functional programming by Backus's definition because it has variable definitions. That's the first clue that something is wrong. Either Backus's idea is such a failure that even ``pure functional programmers'' don't want to use it or it's some kind of scam. Backus founded a religion but his own followers don't follow its teachings.