On Thu, 19 May 2011 22:13:14 -0700, rusi wrote: > [I agree with you Xah that recursion is a technical word that should not > be foisted onto lay users.]
I think that is a patronizing remark that under-estimates the intelligence of lay people and over-estimates the difficulty of understanding recursion. Any person who has ever been to a barber or hairdresser with mirrors on two parallel walls will be familiar with recursion: a reflection of the reflection of the reflection of the reflection, forever. In 1970, an extremely low-brow comedy "Carry On Up The Jungle" was about the search for an imaginary bird that flies in smaller and small circles until it disappears up it's own rear end, a type of recursion: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carry_On_Up_the_Jungle The bird in question goes back in folklore since at least 1854: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oozlum_bird Trust me on this, if the audience of Carry On films could understand recursion, anyone can! -- Steven -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list