[Python-Dev] Proper tail recursion (original) (raw)

Michael Chermside mcherm at mcherm.com
Mon Jul 19 21:17:23 CEST 2004

Chris King writes:

Given the proposed changes: [...] is Guido still -1 on this?

Guido replies:

Yes, very strongly against.

I don't like reading code that was written by someone trying to use tail recursion. It's the ultimate code obfuscation.

As one of the people who has been defending this proposal, let me now suggest that we just drop the idea. Guido has made it quite clear... it's not the way that it's implemented that he objects to, it's the mere fact that it enables the user to write using a highly recursive style. No change to the implementation (even if you could avoid having the second event loop) will fix the problem. Your original change can be kept around as a patch that people can apply for themselves if they want to. I expect that anyone who really cared would be using stackless anyway.

You and I may think that Guido is wrong on this one, but he's been quite clear and it's not worth arguing over.

-- Michael Chermside

More information about the Python-Dev mailing list