Subj : Re: Do all programming languages use files? To : comp.programming From : Richard Heathfield Date : Wed Aug 31 2005 10:57 pm Ed Prochak said: > > Richard Heathfield wrote: >> Ed Prochak said: >> >> > And there is the less obvious language with Sequence, selection, and >> > functions (as long as recursion is allowed, iteration can be >> > implemented via recursion). >> >> Then the language has a rather strange form of iteration. It might be a >> nuisance to do, but it's still iteration. > > Recursion and iteration are not the same thing. That depends on your point of view! I once worked on a project where we were converting a load of QBasic programs (written by actuaries) into C. I asked one of these actuaries why they used recursion so much. His reply was illuminating: "Quite often we want to do , so we do it, and then we see if we've done it enough. If not, we do it again!" Clearly, he saw no real distinction between recursion and iteration. (Yes yes yes, I do see your point of view - but there are other points of view!) >> > and How about languages with only sequence and selection (The loops are >> > implied in nonprocedural languages like SQL.) >> >> I don't really think of SQL as a programming language. It's more of a >> fairly portable database API. > > Depends on the scope of what ia a language. The deveopers thought it > was a language. It is after all the Structured (or Standard) Query > Language. Sure, but not everybody sees it as a *programming* language. One would not typically pick SQL as the obvious candidate language in which to write, say, a video game. > Maybe its power obscures its usefulness. A simple SQL script > can do a LOT of processing (stuff that would take a procedural language > kilolines of code). I consider it a programming language. Okay. I think you're unusual in that regard. But unusual is okay too. > So on the topic, SQL I'd say does not support files. (gets back to the > "what is a file?" question, doesn't it.) Er, files are things in which you store data. QED? :-) > > Does FORTH have file operators? No idea. -- Richard Heathfield "Usenet is a strange place" - dmr 29 July 1999 http://www.cpax.org.uk Email rjh at the above domain .