Tail recursion modulo cons

[James Hague]

This is a compiler optimization that effectively makes functions like the
following tail recursive:

map(F, [H|T]) ->
    [F(H)|map(F, T)];
map(_, []) -> [].

What's nice about this is that you can avoid the unintiuitive "accumulator +
big reverse at the end" technique if you want a function to execute in
constant space (and it's easier to explain as well).  As D.H. Warren
introduced this, I'm assuming it's fairly common in Prolog compilers.  It's
implemented in the compiler for Mercury (also a logic language).  Has anyone
ever looked into this for Erlang?

http://burks.brighton.ac.uk/burks/foldoc/12/115.htm