On Tue, Jul 14, 2015 at 3:41 PM, Marko Rauhamaa <ma...@pacujo.net> wrote: > Tail-call optimization has nothing to do with converting algorithms into > iterations. It's a prosaic trick of dropping an unneeded stack frame > before making a function call. > >> The claim that TCO means you don't need stack space for all those >> levels of recursion doesn't work if you still need stack space for all >> those levels of recursion *before* you get to the tail call. > > Nobody is making that claim.
Actually, that claim was made - that Python's stack would overflow if you didn't optimize tail calls away. I don't feel like digging up through the history to find out who first made the claim, but it was made in this thread. ChrisA -- https://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
