[ntoshev]

Ability requires memory, at least for basic things.

You can't be a good programmer and forget the syntax of the language you are working in. If you need to look up something as fundamental as switch statement in the internet, it's like a writer looking up words in the dictionary before writing them down in his novel.

[jonknee]

Writers very frequently use the dictionary. There is no problem with it, that's why we have dictionaries.

[eru]

Not for scrabble disputes?

[jcromartie]

I think switch is a particularly bad example here. Honestly, I can't (accurately) tell you the last time I used one. It's not an every-day construct for a lot of people.

[eru]

Neither Python nor Haskell have it - as far as I know. Perhaps you can create one out of monads though.

[lsb]

Actually, case is built into Haskell: it's the evaluation primitive in Haskell Core; see Don Stewart's blog post http://cgi.cse.unsw.edu.au/~dons/blog/2008/05/16 .

[eru]

Yes, there it is. Sorry, I did not research my claim.

Actually pattern matching can also be described as something like a case-switch.