is state bad?

amyc@well.sf.ca.us (Amy Caplan)
Sat, 24 Dec 1994 02:02:34 GMT

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is state bad? amyc@well.sf.ca.us (1994-12-24)
Re: is state bad? conway@munta.cs.mu.OZ.AU (1995-01-05)
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Newsgroups: comp.compilers,comp.theory
From: amyc@well.sf.ca.us (Amy Caplan)
Keywords: design, OOP, question
Organization: The Whole Earth 'Lectronic Link, Sausalito, CA
Date: Sat, 24 Dec 1994 02:02:34 GMT

I think I have encountered a viewpoint that local state is bad,
presumably because it makes programs more difficult to understand
and debug. (e.g. violating the notion of "referential transparency").


This would seem to be in conflict with the "object oriented" trend,
which often encourages local state.


1. Is this my imagination, or is this really a widely shared viewpoint?


2. If so, are there any objective measures that show that
a routine with local state is more 'complex' for human or compiler
than an equivalent routine that operates without local state,
or at least a good argument to this effect?


Thanks for any enlightenment.
--

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