Re: Proper Tail Recursive C++

Sebastian Schmidt <sc@informatik.uni-jena.de> wrote:
>Do you mean a compiler which is able to transform tail recursive
>functions into loops? According to the documentation GCC does this.
>I haven't, however, tested if it works for C++.


We need to distinguish (self-) tail recursion and general tail calls.
Gcc can eliminate direct (named) calls to the current function,
i.e. simple tail-recursion. However, general tail-call elimination as
required for Scheme (e.g. indirect tail-calls and mutual recursion)
are beyond Gcc. (It has been discussed, and would be very useful for
people implementing Scheme and other languages that require general
tail-call-elimination.)
--
--Per Bothner
Cygnus Solutions bothner@cygnus.com http://www.cygnus.com/~bothner
--

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