[hexagonc]

I think the semantics of "map" are quite a bit more specific than "for". For one thing, "map" functions have a return value which is usually the same length as its argument, which is usually a sequential data-structure. On the other hand, "for"-like functions or statements cannot or do not return values. True, if you ignore the return value from "map", it usually works the same as a "for" loop but the opposite is not true. The return value from 'map' is all the difference in the world and allows chaining of transformations amongst other things.

[mannykannot]

Putting aside languages in which loops may be expressions, you (and also village-idiot) are talking about how a program does things, not what it does, and what I am saying is that the case for map, etc. improving readability, reliability or productivity over the equivalent loop-based code is not made through simple examples. I am inclined to believe that functional programming is a better paradigm, but I did not arrive at that opinion from simple examples.