raganwald
(This is a snapshot of my old weblog. New posts and selected republished essays can be found at raganwald.com.)

Thursday, March 20, 2008
  What to do about Imperative Programming


Robert Fischer was kind enough to point out the simplest and most effective cure for the difficulties of Imperative Programming. However, his advice was terse and obvious, and while simple truths are often correct, they rarely persuade or entertain without a consultant’s study of some kind.

Since it is the evening before a major holiday, and neither of us want to read a lot of boring exposition, I have asked Mo Collins and Bob Newhart to act the whole thing out for you as a sketch:



All my very best to you and the ones you love. Have a great weekend!
 

Comments on “What to do about Imperative Programming:
Holy crap, a MadTV sketch that was funny; I never thought I'd see the day. Thanks.
 
Are you asking for a blog about why imperative programming is bad and functional/point-free is better? 'Cause I've got one of those. :)
 




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Reg Braithwaite


Recent Writing
Homoiconic Technical Writing / raganwald.posterous.com

Books
What I‘ve Learned From Failure / Kestrels, Quirky Birds, and Hopeless Egocentricity

Share
rewrite_rails / andand / unfold.rb / string_to_proc.rb / dsl_and_let.rb / comprehension.rb / lazy_lists.rb

Beauty
IS-STRICTLY-EQUIVALENT-TO-A / Spaghetti-Western Coding / Golf is a good program spoiled / Programming conventions as signals / Not all functions should be object methods

The Not So Big Software Design / Writing programs for people to read / Why Why Functional Programming Matters Matters / But Y would I want to do a thing like this?

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Notation
The unary ampersand in Ruby / (1..100).inject(&:+) / The challenge of teaching yourself a programming language / The significance of the meta-circular interpreter / Block-Structured Javascript / Haskell, Ruby and Infinity / Closures and Higher-Order Functions

Opinion
Why Apple is more expensive than Amazon / Why we are the biggest obstacles to our own growth / Is software the documentation of business process mistakes? / We have lost control of the apparatus / What I’ve Learned From Sales I, II, III

Whimsey
The Narcissism of Small Code Differences / Billy Martin’s Technique for Managing his Manager / Three stories about The Tao / Programming Language Stories / Why You Need a Degree to Work For BigCo

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