Why is Ruby NOT tail recursive?

ruby-talk
1

I have just been reading a chapter on how to implement tail-recursiveness
in Lisp, and it seems simple enough. Why does not Ruby do it?

Thanks,

-Laza
http://lazax.com/blog

2

Hi,

···

In message “Why is Ruby NOT tail recursive?” on 04/03/01, Laza laza@mailinator.com writes:

I have just been reading a chapter on how to implement tail-recursiveness
in Lisp, and it seems simple enough. Why does not Ruby do it?

Just because it was too hard to implement tail recursion with the
current interpreter.

						matz.
3

It would be a nice to have, but on the other hand, converting a tail
recursive call to a while loop is usually a very easy refactoring to make
by hand.

John Carter Phone : (64)(3) 358 6639
Tait Electronics Fax : (64)(3) 359 4632
PO Box 1645 Christchurch Email : john.carter@tait.co.nz
New Zealand

The universe is absolutely plastered with the dashed lines exactly one
space long.

···

On Mon, 1 Mar 2004, Laza wrote:

I have just been reading a chapter on how to implement tail-recursiveness
in Lisp, and it seems simple enough. Why does not Ruby do it?

4

John Carter wrote:

···

On Mon, 1 Mar 2004, Laza wrote:

I have just been reading a chapter on how to implement tail-recursiveness
in Lisp, and it seems simple enough. Why does not Ruby do it?

It would be a nice to have, but on the other hand, converting a tail
recursive call to a while loop is usually a very easy refactoring to make
by hand.

That question might be a candidate for the FAQ, wouldn’t it?
The answer is here:
http://blade.nagaokaut.ac.jp/cgi-bin/scat.rb/ruby/ruby-talk/94033

Happy rubying

Stephan