[Shootout-list] Organisation for numerical tests

[skaller]

On Thu, 2005-05-05 at 01:28, Jos=C3=A9 Bollo wrote:

> >
> > Pure functional languages don't do destructive assignment - create ne=
w
> > values instead.
>=20
> is it a functional languages shootout ?
>=20
> functional languages can do what imperatives languages do.

No they can't. They can't do loops, they can't modify
variables, and so they CANNOT satisfy 'do it the same
way' test requirements.

Yet, they can often solve the same problem more=20
effiently (in terms of both processing speed and
clarity of code) than an imperative language,
and sometimes not .. :)

This is why 'do it the same way' must not be the=20
primary way of specifying tests. Indeed if you look
deeper the ONLY way to 'do it the same way as
this Java program' is to use that precise Java program.

Some tests could apply to only one class of languages,
for example, higher order function tests can't be done
in C++ or Java, but it is worth testing these anyhow,
since eliminating closures is a hard job FP language
optimisers do.=20

--=20
John Skaller, mailto:skaller@users.sf.net
voice: 061-2-9660-0850,=20
snail: PO BOX 401 Glebe NSW 2037 Australia
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