Stackless Python, Tail Recursion and Functional Programming

[Laura Creighton]

> beno <zope at thewebsons.com> wrote previously:
> |Someone wrote me from this list advising me to drop my passion for
> |functional programming because Python doesn't optimize for it. Then I
> |remembered Cameron Laird's *Stackless Python*. Doesn't this take care of
> |this problem by converting the stack into a tree, just like XSLT? Doesn't
> |that make optimization for tail recursion a cake-walk? And, if so, if I
> |implement the necessary changes to my Python distro, can I write recursive
> |programs without worrying about optimization problems?
> 
> I think someone has found my reference to recursive transition networks,
> or Laura's releated one to Markov chains.  As near as I can tell, this
> post is a random assemblage of commonly occurring (related) words and
> phrases from past c.l.py messages.
> 
> Am I right? Do I get a prize for noticing it?

grin.  I don't know if you get a prize but I think I get the doghouse 
award ....

Laura