Xref: utzoo comp.edu:3686 uw.general:1943
Path: utzoo!dciem!nttor!contact!rrwood
From: rrwood@contact.uucp (roy wood)
Newsgroups: comp.edu,uw.general
Subject: Recursion Summary
Message-ID: <1990Oct23.211651.10227@contact.uucp>
Date: 23 Oct 90 21:16:51 GMT
Reply-To: rrwood@contact.uucp (roy wood)
Distribution: na
Organization: Contact Public Unix BBS. Toronto, Canada.
Lines: 24


Hi again.  I posted a question about recursion and its uses a while back.
After reading through all the replies from the numerous people who were
generous enough to offer their thoughts, the consensus seems to be that the
most elegant demonstration of the power of recursion is in traversing
binary (or other type) trees.  Too bad the person I was trying to convince
doesn't appreciate the usefulness of binary trees!  (what's the equivalent
smiley-face for someone pulling out their hair in frustration?)
 
As many people warned me, recursion is just a useful tool.  Almost anything
that can be done recursively can be done iteratively.  As well, business
folks in general don't often come up with much need for recursion, so they
have trouble believing that it has "real world" applications.  So it goes.
 
And as an interesting side note, I'd like to point out that my original
message made no mention of the sex of the person I was trying to convince,
yet *everyone* assumed that this person was male.  In fact, she is very
much female.  I suppose this is an interesting demonstration of a strong
bias or stereotyping among us.  Does anyone want to do a thesis on the
subject?
 
Thanks to all who replied....
 
-Roy Wood.