Re: why tail recursion matters and why Java isn't it, was Re: lispperformance was Re: problems with lisp

[Pascal Costanza <address@hidden>]

Michael Sperber wrote:

> Pascal> The same holds for iteration: You may not be able to cover important
> Pascal> cases, but this doesn't mean that you shouldn't include them for the
> Pascal> cases you _can_ cover.
> 
> So ... ermh ... yes.  I never said any different.  Neither did Matthias.
[...]

> You are just not reading what Matthias and I are writing.  You're
> talking about "convenience," while Matthias and I are talking about
> principles and terminology.

You are right. I have stepped into the discussion although I haven't 
understood this point. Yes, of course you need some basic general 
constructs on which you can build the more specialized ones (and LOOP is 
a very specialized one in this regard). I would never consciously argue 
otherwise.

I am sorry for the confusion.


Pascal

-- 
Pascal Costanza               University of Bonn
mailto:costanza@web.de        Institute of Computer Science III
http://www.pascalcostanza.de  Römerstr. 164, D-53117 Bonn (Germany)