Iterative vs. Recursive coding

Steven D'Aprano steve at REMOVE-THIS-cybersource.com.au
Sat Aug 21 04:30:53 EDT 2010


On Fri, 20 Aug 2010 09:47:30 +0200, News123 wrote:

> On 08/20/2010 02:26 AM, Steven D'Aprano wrote:
>> On Thu, 19 Aug 2010 22:00:16 +0000, Martin Gregorie wrote:
>> 
>>> Recursion can be quite a trick to get your mind round at first
>> 
>> Really? Do people actually find the *concept* of recursion to be
>> tricky?
> Is this a sincere surprise or are you just boasting?

Why would it be boasting? I didn't say that at the age of seven I 
independently invented a COBOL compiler that supported recursion. *That* 
would be boasting. (It would also be a lie -- at the age of seven, I 
don't think I even knew about the existence of computers.)

Boasting about understanding the idea of recursion is kind of like 
boasting about the putting my hands in the correct glove nine times out 
of ten.


[...]
> The fact, that you didn't have the issue doens't mean it's easy for
> others.

Apparently not.


-- 
Steven



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