[kazinator]

Kay's concept survives if you substitute "function call" for "message". Sending a message to an object and receiving a reply is closely analogous to invoking a function and obtaining a return value. Unfortunately, his overall model implies single dispatch. Sure, "everything is an object", but only one thing is the leftmost argument: the thing that receives the message; and the other things are just arguments.

[seanmcdirmid]

Wow, just no. Sending a message to an object is more like calling your mom. Applying a function is like...applying a function. There is no real analogue for that, it's just math.

[kazinator]

It seems you need more time to think about it.

Message passing can be synchronous, and function calls asynchronous

Also consider remote procedure calls.

[seanmcdirmid]

A function is well defined in mathematics; see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Function_(mathematics) . Note that the definition doesn't really differ for computer science. Procedures, on the other hand, may or may not be functions according to whether they behave like them (match their properties).

[kazinator]

This latest response seems to be entirely based on hooking into the word "procedure" which occurs in "remote procedure call". I don't do Eliza, sorry.

[seanmcdirmid]

Well, I'm not even sure this conversation would pass the Turing Test :)