[erlang-questions] tail recursion question

[Valentin Micic]

loop2 - yes, it is tail-recursive.
loop3 - following an approach that compiler should not second-guess a
programmer, I'd say *no*, this is not a tail-recursive function. This should
be relatively simple to test -- run the code by calling loop3/1, and see if
the memory increases over time. If it does (eventually dumping the core),
the loop3/1 is definitely *not* tail recursive :-)

V/


On 2010/04/27 10:50 PM, "Doug Edmunds (gmail)" <dougedmunds@REDACTED>
wrote:

> In this example module, loop1 is tail recursive, but
> are loop2 and loop3 equally tail recursive?
> or do loop2 and loop3 leave something on the stack?
> 
> Thanks.
> --dae--
> 
> -module(loops).
> -compile(export_all).
> 
> start() ->
>      register(loop1, spawn(?MODULE, loop1,[10])),
>      register(loop2, spawn(?MODULE, loop2,[10])),
>      register(loop3, spawn(?MODULE, loop3,[10])).
> 
> loop1(State) ->
>      io:format("loop1:~p~n",[State]),
>      receive
>          a ->
>              State2 = State - 1;
>          b ->
>              State2 = State + 1;
>          _ ->
>              State2 = State
>      end,
>      loop1(State2).
> 
> 
> loop2(State) ->
>      io:format("loop2:~p~n",[State]),
>      receive
>          a ->
>              State2 = State - 1 ,
>              loop2(State2);
>          b ->
>              State2 = State + 1 ,
>              loop2(State2);
>          _ ->
>              State2 = State,
>              loop2(State2)
>    end.
> 
> loop3(State) ->
>      io:format("loop3:~p~n",[State]),
>      receive
>          a ->
>              State2 = State - 1 ,
>              loop3(State2);
>          b ->
>              State2 = State + 1 ,
>              loop3(State2);
>          _ ->
>              State2 = State,
>              loop3(State2)
>      end,
>      never_reach_this().
> 
> never_reach_this() ->
>      io:format("Am I tail recursive or not?").
> 
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