Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!att!watmath!mks.com!tslwat!louk
From: louk@tslwat.UUCP (Lou Kates)
Newsgroups: comp.edu
Subject: Re: Recursion?
Keywords: recursion, business and other computing
Message-ID: <333@tslwat.UUCP>
Date: 13 Oct 90 12:05:25 GMT
References: <1990Oct5.101354.593@contact.uucp> <152256@felix.UUCP>
Reply-To: louk@tslwat.UUCP (Lou Kates)
Distribution: comp
Organization: Teleride Sage, Ltd., Waterloo
Lines: 35

In article <152256@felix.UUCP> asylvain@felix.UUCP (Alvin "the Chipmunk" Sylvain) writes:
>In article <1990Oct5.101354.593@contact.uucp> rrwood@contact.uucp
>Roy Wood writes:
>::problem.  Does anyone out there know of any other good examples that
>::show the reak usefulness of recursion?
>or even a 4x4 for that matter.  Consider recursion as a tool, which has
>it's proper applications.  Accounts Receiveables just ain't one of 'em.

Accounts   could    be  aggregates  of   other  accounts so  that
accumulating the tree   of  accounts  under a particular  account
could be done recursively. There exists  an    accounting program
called NewViews  whose user interface which consists of exploding
accounts into subaccounts makes this rather obvious.

An inventory  parts  system for   a manufacturer might have parts
which are  actually assemblies of other parts.  A complete  parts
breakdown  of  a   particular   assembly   part could be done  by
recursively traversing  the tree of parts   that     the assembly
represents.   

Look for  applications  that require  what data processing people
call "explosion" and you will likely find additional applications
for recursion.

Unfortunately, the  business community and  those who cater to it
have traditionally held the view that recursion is not applicable
to these problems. This is reinforced the lack of availability of
recursion in the first  place as a  tool to this group since  the
most widely used tools for business data processing are COBOL and
SQL and  both  lack the ability to do  recursion. When innovative
applications like NewViews come  along which expose the naturally
recursive  structure of certain business applications it tends to
be a great surprise to many.

Lou Kates, Teleride Sage Ltd., louk@tslwat, 416-596-1940 ext. 210