From: Steve Klabnik <steve@...>
Date: 2011-04-19T22:48:51+09:00
Subject: Re: Tail Call Optimization (Tail Recursion)

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>
> I recall that quote, and it totally mystifies me.


He makes a sensible argument, it's just not the particular set of tradeoffs
that I'd choose. But that's why I don't use Python, and he does. :)

Essentially, his argument boils down to this: with TCO, you can write
programs that _need_ TCO to function. And then you have Python code that
works on some interpreters and not others. And that's bad.

In reality, the more useful benefit of TCO comes when it's not a recursive
> procedure, but simply invoking another method, and thus using less stack.


This, along with what Michael says, is also a pretty nice thing. Fits the
'optimization' name much better. :)

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