> What snippet in a purely functional programming language would be simultaneously intelligible and communicate the power of FP to someone who knew only imperative programming?
Propaganda about "the power of FP" was not what your parent was asking for. They were asking for code snippets. They were not asking for a program that shows off all the power of the language.
> They were asking for code snippets. They were not asking for a program that shows off all the power of the language.
Talk about missing the main point of my comment. Code snippets that simply embed other paradigms are typically non-idiomatic or just syntactic noise if you're not familiar with the syntax. Code snippets that show off the problems for which the language is perfectly suited are unintelligible to those that don't understand the paradigm. Code snippets simply aren't all that useful if your language has a fundamentally different paradigm.
> Nope. No constraints here.
Strange because they published a paper about adding constraints years ago [1].
> Talk about missing the main point of my comment.
I didn't miss your point. Your point was invalid. You were assuming that OP was entirely unfamiliar with functional or logic programming, and that functional or logic programming snippets would be unintelligible to them. You had no reason for these assumptions.
> Strange because they published a paper about adding constraints years ago
Ah thanks, I did not know that. The point above still stands, though: Adding an extension to what calls itself a "logic/functional" language does not make it into only a constraint logic programming language.
> You were assuming that OP was entirely unfamiliar with functional or logic programming, and that functional or logic programming snippets would be unintelligible to them. You had no reason for these assumptions.
No I didn't. I exhaustively covered all cases: "If you're familiar with constraint LP, then you don't need this sort of snippet, and if you're not familiar with it, I don't think any such snippet would be intelligible to you without hard work."
The first clause says that the high-level description as a LP language suffices if you're already familiar with such a concept and so snippets aren't of much use, and if you're not, then a snippet wouldn't help you anyway.
From the featured website: "Mercury is a logic/functional programming language". You are still going on about constraints, although they are not mentioned on the website at all. Also, before, you were going on about functional programming as if OP was not familiar with it: "What snippet in a purely functional programming language would be simultaneously intelligible and communicate the power of FP to someone who knew only imperative programming?"
Snippets would be useful for people who already know functional or logic programming. Have a nice day.
Seriously? I merely quoted my original text to demonstrate a completely unrelated point, so you're the one harping on this unnecessarily.
> Also, before, you were going on about functional programming as if OP was not familiar with it: "What snippet in a purely functional programming language would be simultaneously intelligible and communicate the power of FP to someone who knew only imperative programming?"
Right, the point being made is clarified by the text I quoted. If you're familiar with it then you don't need it, and if you're not then it wouldn't help you.
Propaganda about "the power of FP" was not what your parent was asking for. They were asking for code snippets. They were not asking for a program that shows off all the power of the language.
For whatever it's worth, here is Fibonacci: http://rosettacode.org/wiki/Fibonacci_sequence#Mercury and FizzBuzz: http://rosettacode.org/wiki/FizzBuzz#Mercury
> Mercury is a constraint logic programming language.
Nope. No constraints here. Also, you can mostly ignore the logic part and use it like a functional programming language.