[Tutor] Question on lists

[Tim Peters]

The questions about recursion and ways to fiddle lists were covered well
already, so I'd just like to encourage you to think about other ways to
solve the problem.  Attached is a very similar algorithm that doesn't use
recursion.  Which is faster?  Which is clearer?  Which gives the right
answer <wink>?

not-rhetorical-questions-ly y'rs  - tim

def factor(n):
    a = []
    d = 2
    while d*d <= n:
        while n % d == 0:
            a.append(d)
            n = n / d
        d = d + 1
    if n > 1 or not a:
        a.append(n)
    return a