Eric H. Jung wrote:
Hi,
The problem with recursive JS functions is that the end user most likely
ends up with a sluggish feeling browser.
How is recursion any less performant or more sluggish than repeatedly calling a
function
within a
loop (as in your code)?
What? You've never seen the "Too many recursions" errors?
Also, recursions stacks up quite a bit, and that leads to a sluggish
feeling browser.
Yes, I have seen that error. For example:
(function() {arguments.callee();})();
It is my understanding "InternalError: too much recursion" is no different than
a stack overflow
error. For instance:
// Create a long chain of functions and call
// the first in the chain
for (var i=0; i<9999; i++)
eval("function a" + i + "(){ a" + (i+1) + "();}");
a0();
This also yields "InternalError: too much recursion" even though there is no
recursion. A more
appropriate error description, IMHO, would be "Stack overflow error" or "No
more stack space
available" because recursion is not necessary to overflow the stack.
So my question is, "Why would recursion be any less efficient (or more visible
to the user as
sluggishness) than a function chain of the same depth?"
Because like I said, it stacks up more, uses more memory and is harder
to debug, not to mention that your version will be up to 180ms slower
than my example.
Recursion should (IMHO) only be used if it can't be don't other wise,
if it saves you lines (can you make a smaller working example?) because
recursion can reduce the number of JS lines in specific cases. However,
you already had duplicated code in your example so that shouldn't be a
valid argument ;)
Now I seriously need a cup of coffee and a proper breakfast!
Have some for me, too :)
I did, but there is no StarBucks here so I had to make some myself
FYI: there is StarBucks in Afghanistan:
http://www.warriorswithwrenches.com/star.html but not in the low
countries. Man what a joke!
/HJ
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