Self function

[Steven D'Aprano]

On Tue, 05 May 2009 01:25:49 -0700, Carl Banks wrote:

> *Sigh*  Well, I'm out of this debate.  Apparently it's not possible to
> argue that recursivie algorithms should be avoided *sometimes* without
> everyone citing cases that obviously aren't from those times (as if I
> had been arguing that recursion should be avoided all the time).

You overstated your position, and then instead of gracefully admitting 
that you overstated it, you're trying to weasel out of it by acting the 
victim. If all you had said was that "sometimes" recursion should be 
avoided, then who could argue against that? Scheme purists? Pah, this is 
Python, we don't need no stinkin' mathematical purity!

Practicality beats purity is *precisely* why sometimes you need recursion 
instead of forcing a complicated iterative solution onto a simple 
recursive problem.


> Here's a parting thought for you to cite "counterexamples" of:
> 
> Iteration should be used instead of recursion anywhere a tail- recursive
> algorithm is possible. Recursion should be used only when
> tail-recursion is not possible.

Or when the recursive algorithm is simpler than the iterative algorithm, 
and you don't care about squeezing out every last tiny micro-optimization 
into the code.



-- 
Steven