checking if a list is empty

[Dan Stromberg]

On Sun, May 8, 2011 at 3:41 PM, Terry Reedy <tjreedy at udel.edu> wrote:

> On 5/8/2011 10:07 AM, Steven D'Aprano wrote:
>
>  Because the test of "is this nothing, or something?" is a common, useful
>> test:
>>
>
> Because inductive algorithms commonly branch on 'input is something' (not
> done, change args toward 'nothing'and recurse or iterate) versus 'input is
> nothing (done, return base expression).
>

Just what is an inductive algorithm?

I'm familiar with inductive reasoning and inductive proofs, but there
doesn't seem to be much on the 'net defining inductive algorithms.  There
are some papers that reference the topic, but few seem to spend much time on
defining it.  They seem to have to do with A.I. knowledge acquisition -
perhaps it's an algorithm that reasons from a bunch of factlets to create a
general rule?
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