Iterative vs. Recursive coding

[Michael Torrie]

On 08/21/2010 03:03 AM, Steven D'Aprano wrote:
>> - there must be a condition where the recursion has to stop otherwise
>> the routine will continue to call itself infinitely.
>>   This is called the Base Case
> 
> I agree with this, although I've never heard the name "Base Case" before.

"Base Case" is indeed the formal term.  If I recall this term comes from
inductive mathematical proofs, upon which recursion is based formally.
In my introduction to computer data structures class we spent a lot of
time learning about induction and doing inductive proofs.  I always
hated them until one day when I was trying to teach recursion to a group
of freshmen and found myself relying on inductive proofs to demonstrate
that recursion indeed works.  For the uninitiated, recursion is often
thought about too deeply.