[Python-Dev] Re: python-dev Summary for 2004-07-01 through 2004-07-15[draft]

[Terry Reedy]

"Brett Cannon" <bac at OCF.Berkeley.EDU> wrote in message
news:410095A1.2040002 at ocf.berkeley.edu...
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You are not getting tail recursion
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This strikes me as both misleading and potentially inflamatory.  People
remain free to use any form of recursion, including tail recursion.  As I
understand it, what Guido rejected was the automagic special case
single-framing of tail recursive calls (for time and space saving).  So
what people are not getting is automatic tail recursion optimization (or
elimination, though I consider that term less accurate).

It seems to me that this decision is consistent with the general policy of
not doing code-rewriting optimatization.  We also are 'not getting', for
instance, automatic common-expression elimination or automatic strength
reduction or automatic movement of constant expressions outside of loops.
So I suggest something like

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Automatic tail recursion optimization
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In keeping with the general policy of not doing code-rewrite optimation in
the compiler, Guido rejected this proposal.  For more, read...


Terry J. Reedy