why memoizing is faster

[Fons Adriaensen]

On Thu, Mar 24, 2011 at 08:12:22PM -0400, Terry Reedy wrote:

> The irony of this is that memoizing 'recursive' functions with a  
> decorator depends on the fact the Python does not have truly recursive  
> functions. A function cannot call itself directly.

I wonder what exactly is meant by that last sentence:

* It doesn't happen (since the function name is evaluated
  to find the function to be called, as you explained).

or

* Even if a variable pointing directly to the function
  were provided (as a global or function argument),
  calling it is not supposed to work (for some reason).

??

Ciao,

-- 
FA