Are declared variables a bad thing?

[bryan rasmussen]

> Did the Makers of XQuery forget their computer science lessons when they
> came up with the variable declaration block? Is it bad style in the
> XQuery world to use declared variables directly in functions and
> queries? Is this a case of needing to forget wisdom from the procedural
> world? Are declared variables a good and necessary thing in the
> functional world?
>
I would think that the problem with global variables is that the
meaning of those variables can be reassigned introducing bugs. In a
true functional language where this cannot happen it is not a problem.

However in a lot of (non-functional) languages I think global
variables are just to useful to drop.

Cheers,
Bryan Rasmussen