Errors in loop conditions can make for slow program. Errors in recursion
can cause a stack overflow.
Steve
-----Original Message-----
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
[mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]On Behalf Of Michael
S. Davis
Sent: Thursday, June 22, 2000 8:37 AM
To: Palm Developer Forum
Subject: Re: Recursion?
On Thu, 22 Jun 2000, Charles Rezsonya wrote:
> i keep hearing recursion should be avoided whiled devin' up an app. what
> exactly does this mean? don't call too many loops or repeated functions?
> any extra details or specs on what and what not to do would be
appriciated.
> brief is ok =)
This has always puzzeled me also. Recursion means a routine that calls
itself. Computing a factorial is a classic example.
But what confuses me is that a routine that recurses 3 times generally
takes up no more stack than a routine that calls another routine, which
calls a third routine.
It seems that the operative warning hers should be "don't nest
routines" too deep rather than "don't use recursion". Each time you
call a new function, you place a lot of data on the stack AND the stack
space is limited.
In fact, it is quite possible that a routine that recurses 4 times may
use less stack that 3 separate routines that are nested.
Anyone care to explain why there is a warning against "recursion" rather
than a warning against "nesting" of functions.
Thanks
>
> l8r
> Charles Rezsonya
> Software Engineer
> IJW Software
>
>
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