/tail_callisthenics

Primary LanguageRuby

Fun with tail call optimization

What it is: Wikipedia Entry on Tail Calls

With tail call optimization you can replace looping with recursion.

Rules for today:

  1. Functions can not have side effects
  2. Functions should return only one value
  3. No mutating state: use only basic data types and those provided in data_structures.rb
  4. No looping allowed. Rely on recursion instead.

These excersizes:

  • Make the test files pass.
  • Run the test files that don't end in "tr" using normal ruby.
  • Run the test files that do end in tr using the file run_with_tail_call_optimization.rb.

The best order to attempt these:

  1. ruby test_fibonacci.rb
  2. ruby run_with_tail_call_optimization.rb test_fibonacci_tr.rb
  3. ruby test_todo.rb
  4. ruby run_with_tail_call_optimization.rb test_todo_tr.rb