Yes, but it would have been significantly more baffling if the word "sieve" didn't hint at its behavior. Still, I'm not sure that a functional background would

Yes, but it would have been significantly more baffling if the word "sieve" didn't hint at its behavior. Still, I'm not sure that a functional background would have helped, or maybe my background is more functional than I think. I know some Python, and I read a few articles about functional programming a couple of years ago, but I don't think I could give you a clear definition of what functional programming is.