Re: [xsl] Show all permutations of N coins ... without using recursion?

Subject: Re: [xsl] Show all permutations of N coins ... without using recursion?
From: David Carlisle <davidc@xxxxxxxxx>
Date: Mon, 02 Sep 2013 10:27:02 +0100
On 02/09/2013 10:19, Costello, Roger L. wrote:
Excellent point David.

Michael Kay, does SAXON implement xsl:iterate using recursion? Does
SAXON implement xsl:for-each using recursion?

That's the wrong question:-) If you naively implement recursion as a recursive call then you'd never get streaming capability, but the point is that a tail recursive function can be (and is, usually) rewritten by the complier to essentially turn into a loop (as there is no need to make a stack of all the local state of each function call as the local state is never used after the recursive call (hence the name _tail_ recursion).

For-each is a different kettle of fish, but the point is if you re-write
a tail recursive function to use xsl:iterate, it doesn't necessarily
make any difference as the compiler can make similar rewrites
internally. (Saxon can certainly detect and re-write recursive calls, I
don't know if its rewrites are streamable but it is certainly allowed to
make them so)


David


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