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Re:Ruins of forgotten empires: APL Languages (2013) by justthistime_ on Saturday June 13, 2015 @05:13PM (#9712689)
I think that no-one will argue that an imperative, transient data-structure will be faster than a functional, persistent data-structure if you use it imperatively.

If you use persistent data-structures the way they are meant to be used, they can and will be faster than a simple array.

Both have valid use-cases, but they are often distinct.

Re:Ruins of forgotten empires: APL Languages (2013) by taeric on Saturday June 13, 2015 @09:46PM (#9713525)
You would be surprised at the arguments you see.

Even the one you are making is... tough. Persistent data-structures are not a sure fire win against mutable versions. Again I find myself refering to the DLX algorithm. The entire point of which is that it is easier and faster to permute through different configurations of a data structure then it is to have all instances instantiated in a persistent fashion.

Does this mean that persistent data structures are without use? Of course not! Again, you may not be optimizing speed of execution. Which is perfectly valid!!