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This mapping of inputs to outputs is only superficial and hides that fact that computation is inherently “sequential” as you say. That’s why the even lambda cal
by amw-zero 6y ago
This mapping of inputs to outputs is only superficial and hides that fact that computation is inherently “sequential” as you say. That’s why the even lambda calculus requires reductions.
Of course I prefer writing in a functional style, because pure functions are just simpler. But all of computation can’t be reduced to just pure functions, which is why even Haskell has to call out to its runtime eventually.
- dragonwriter 6y ago> But all of computation can’t be reduced to just pure functions, which is why even Haskell has to call out to its runtime eventually. All of computation provably can, but not everything computers do, despite the name, is computation.
- amw-zero 6y agoComputation cannot be reduced to simply functions, that’s why we need something like the lambda calculus to express computation. There are functions within the calculus, but to say that “computation is a function” is not correct.
- pcstl 6y agoActually, computation, in the classic sense used by Turing, Church, and other pioneers, refers to evaluating the value of (mathematical) functions. The word computation first appears in the earliest papers of the field which would later become computer science referring to "computable functions", which refers to functions which can be evaluated by a mechanical process. Hence saying "not everything computers do is computation".