Xref: utzoo comp.edu:3612 uw.general:1834
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Path: utzoo!utgpu!watserv1!watdragon!lotus!psmielke
From: psmielke@lotus.uwaterloo.ca (Peter Mielke)
Subject: Re: Recursion?
Message-ID: <1990Oct5.170251.14806@watdragon.waterloo.edu>
Summary:  recursion
Sender: daemon@watdragon.waterloo.edu (Owner of Many System Processes)
Reply-To: psmielke@lotus (Peter Mielke)
Organization: University of Waterloo
Distribution: na
Date: Fri, 5 Oct 90 17:02:51 GMT
Lines: 23


In <1990Oct5.101354.593@contact.uucp>, rrwood@contact.uucp (roy wood) writes:
> I'm working with someone whose background is mostly COBOL programming in
> a business environment.  This person is convinced that recursion is just
> a "trick" of some sort, with no real world applications.  I'm trying to
> think of some examples that really show the usefulness of recursion,
> but all I can think of right now are factorials and the knight's tour
> problem.  Does anyone out there know of any other good examples that
> show the reak usefulness of recursion?

Think of grammars that specify computer languages.. Or, natural
language grammars. Granted we humans don't go to the same sort of
depth of recursion than computers.

Give him a Prolog manual for Christmas! :-)

> -Roy Wood.

Peter.
--
Peter Mielke                     Preferred ->  psmielke@lotus.waterloo.edu
University of Waterloo                         peter@doe.utoronto.ca
An undergrad that's been around too long...