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Re: Is this an example of tail recursion?

References <53903f1c-a740-4508-9d24-0b0bec9ad339@googlegroups.com> <eb5d250a-aa9a-4cf1-9123-ab64a2188538@googlegroups.com> <bbcb163b-43a2-497a-8782-4228de0cb6e9@googlegroups.com>
Date 2015-08-06 01:54 +1000
Subject Re: Is this an example of tail recursion?
From Chris Angelico <rosuav@gmail.com>
Newsgroups comp.lang.python
Message-ID <mailman.1242.1438790090.3674.python-list@python.org> (permalink)

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On Thu, Aug 6, 2015 at 1:37 AM,  <jennyfurtado2@gmail.com> wrote:
> Sorry I am missing a subtle point: Isnt 1+ self.soldiersVsDefenders... ending up calling 1.__add__(self.soldiersVsDefenders...)?

I think his point is that it is, in effect, doing that; but honestly,
calling this a tail call into the int+int addition function is pretty
pointless. I mean, sure, it's technically a sort of tail call, but
it's definitely not tail recursion, and it's such a trivial operation
(adding one to a probably-small number) that it's hardly even worth
mentioning. The main point of tail recursion is how it interacts with
the self-call, and that's not the tail call here.

ChrisA

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Thread

Is this an example of tail recursion? jennyfurtado2@gmail.com - 2015-08-05 08:13 -0700
  Re: Is this an example of tail recursion? Rustom Mody <rustompmody@gmail.com> - 2015-08-05 08:21 -0700
    Re: Is this an example of tail recursion? jennyfurtado2@gmail.com - 2015-08-05 08:37 -0700
      Re: Is this an example of tail recursion? Chris Angelico <rosuav@gmail.com> - 2015-08-06 01:54 +1000
      Re: Is this an example of tail recursion? Rustom Mody <rustompmody@gmail.com> - 2015-08-05 09:10 -0700
        Re: Is this an example of tail recursion? jennyfurtado2@gmail.com - 2015-08-05 09:15 -0700
        Re: Is this an example of tail recursion? Chris Angelico <rosuav@gmail.com> - 2015-08-06 02:28 +1000
          Re: Is this an example of tail recursion? jennyfurtado2@gmail.com - 2015-08-05 09:41 -0700
            Re: Is this an example of tail recursion? Rustom Mody <rustompmody@gmail.com> - 2015-08-05 09:51 -0700
              Re: Is this an example of tail recursion? Chris Angelico <rosuav@gmail.com> - 2015-08-06 03:10 +1000
  Re: Is this an example of tail recursion? Chris Angelico <rosuav@gmail.com> - 2015-08-06 01:51 +1000
    Re: Is this an example of tail recursion? jenny <jennyfurtado2@gmail.com> - 2015-08-05 08:59 -0700

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