Self function

[Carl Banks]

On May 5, 12:51 am, Steven D'Aprano
<ste... at REMOVE.THIS.cybersource.com.au> wrote:
> On Mon, 04 May 2009 23:09:25 -0700, Carl Banks wrote:
> > In Python the One Obvious Way is iteration when possible, recursion when
> > necessary.
>
> There's nothing "obvious" about solving the 8 Queens problem using
> iteration. Or walking a binary tree. Or generating all the permutations
> of a list.

*Sigh*  Well, I'm out of this debate.  Apparently it's not possible to
argue that recursivie algorithms should be avoided *sometimes* without
everyone citing cases that obviously aren't from those times (as if I
had been arguing that recursion should be avoided all the time).

Here's a parting thought for you to cite "counterexamples" of:

Iteration should be used instead of recursion anywhere a tail-
recursive algorithm is possible.  Recursion should be used only when
tail-recursion is not possible.


Carl Banks