
On 5/27/2013 9:30 AM, Chris Angelico wrote:
On Mon, May 27, 2013 at 9:01 PM, Joao S. O. Bueno <jsbueno@python.org.br> wrote:
I have a blog post with such a toy - nevertheless, it is just a toy. (If ther ewas soem small problem that could be elegantly approached in this fashion but not interactively, it could be used in production though) What can tail recursion do that can't be done by reassigning to the function parameters and 'goto' back to the top? Or, in the absence of an actual goto, a construct like this:
def tail_recursive_function(some_arg): while True: # ... code if call_self: # return tail_recursive_function(some_other_arg) some_arg = some_other_arg continue # ... more code # falling off the end: break
which basically amounts to a goto but using extra keywords to avoid the one that people hate. Is there any fundamental difference? I've never understood there to be any, but I'm only one, and possibly I'm wrong.
That style can't handle mutually recursive procedures, or the extreme case: a state machine implemented with N functions, each of which calls the next state function at the end. Tail-call elimination isn't simply about noticing recursive calls. It's about noticing that a function ends with a function call, and not burning another stack frame in the process. --Ned.
ChrisA _______________________________________________ Python-ideas mailing list Python-ideas@python.org http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-ideas