I think that algorithm descriptions are often procedural because a procedural approach represents the lowest common denominator of understanding among students. Everyone has followed step-by-step procedures in their life and good pedagogy strives to provide an impedance match between new material and the students' previous experience.

Not all books approachs algorithms in a procedural manner, however. Higher Order Perl, for instance treats a number of algorithms from a functional point of view, as do most books on Haskell. Books on SQL algorithms (like my favorite, SQL for Smarties) are mostly declarative in style.

-Mark

In reply to Re: coding of algorithms is inherently procedural by kvale
in thread coding of algorithms is inherently procedural by spurperl

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