[photo] Computer programmers are notoriously grumpy about interruptions. This grumpiness is not entirely without reason. At our best, programmers enter a mental zone in which our selves and our environment are entirely tuned out, with all thought locked into the problem at hand. We must be conscious of what the code we're working on is intended to do, and what might go wrong in the course of getting from A to Z. We commonly write programs as a series of steps, thus: A; B; C; ... Z; If I write A and B, then get interrupted, a stack of cards falls down in my brain. When I get back to my work, I have to ask myself, "Where was I going with this?" It typically takes 15 minutes or so to reconstruct my ideas, even for an interruption that only lasts two minutes. Another programming style, functional programming works from the goal backward, thus: (Z (Y (X ...))) If I write Z and Y, then get interrupted, I don't have to ask myself where I was going. All I have to reconstruct is how to get... - Bruce Lewis

I sure have to read up on functional programming then. Any pointers? - Pavan

I mean good pointers.. - Pavan

Pavan, I think you're someone who would enjoy SICP. It's the text used at MIT. - Bruce Lewis

Thx.. Looks like the full text is available online.. That's ++.. Seems like I will be rehashing Lisp.. looked into it 15 years back. - Pavan