English Idiom in Unix: Directory Recursively

[David Schwartz]

On May 20, 12:00 am, Jonathan de Boyne Pollard <J.deBoynePollard-
newsgro... at NTLWorld.COM> wrote:

> Indeed. And the algorithms that are employed to perform the operations
> so described are recursive.

Actually, they almost never are. Iterative algorithms are almost
always used to avoid a stack explosion. However, the terminology is
still correct. When you are asked if the operation should be performed
recursively, it is asking whether you want the same effect you would
get if a recursive algorithm was used.

Essentially, there is an implied 'as if' rule. The user doesn't care
how the program accomplishes the task, the user just needs to specify
what task the program should accomplish. This is common throughout the
discipline of programming. (Most standards have an explicit 'as if'
rule that says that when the standard specifies X, they don't
literally mean that X must happen. They mean the behavior must be
indistinguishable from X happening.)

DS