Computer Science Canada

What do easy data structures do to the programmer?
Author:  wtd [ Fri Oct 20, 2006 11:30 am ]
Post subject:  What do easy data structures do to the programmer?
Disclaimer: no, not all of the languages mentioned here are, strictly speaking, functional programming languages. However, I believe that in the context of this topic, they are at least functional-ish.

But I digress...

How does it affect the habits and priorities of a programmer, when that programmer is given the ability to easily construct data structures?

Consider creating a list/array...

O'Caml

code:
[1; 2; 3]


SML, Ruby, Python, Haskell, Perl, Erlang

code:
[1, 2, 3]


Lisp/Scheme

code:
'(1 2 3)


Now, I don't want to spend a lot of time writing code here. I want a discussion. Smile

So... discuss!
Author:  rdrake [ Fri Oct 20, 2006 11:33 am ]
Post subject: 
I'd say it lets them write code faster and easier.

As for affecting habits, it shouldn't do anything in a bad way. It may make them lazier, but name a programmer that isn't lazy.
Author:  Tony [ Fri Oct 20, 2006 3:04 pm ]
Post subject: 
I'm amazed by the ease of datastructures with Ruby's YAML <=> Hash

I can easily create/save/load/change structure, all on the fly, with minimal effort.

Habbits? I don't know.. I suppose it's becomes so much easier to change the structure to fit your code, rather than code to fit an existing structure Laughing

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