[erlang-questions] List to proplist?

[David Mercer]

On Monday, October 20, 2008, Richard O'Keefe wrote

> A version of unfold that I prefer is
> 
> unfold(State, Splitter) ->
>      unfold(State, Splitter, []).
> 
> unfold(State, Splitter, Acc) ->
>      case Splitter(State)
>        of []            -> lists:reverse(Acc)
>         ; [Item|State1] -> unfold(State1, Splitter, [Item|Acc])
>      end.

Why is a cons cell, [Item|State1], preferred over a tuple, {Item, State1}?

Just wondering if there is a performance consideration or some other
consideration that I am missing.  Please advise.  Thank-you.

David Mercer