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From: bobmon@iuvax.cs.indiana.edu (RAMontante)
Newsgroups: comp.os.msdos.misc
Subject: Re: DRDOS config file
Message-ID: <1991Jun21.174201.1993@news.cs.indiana.edu>
Date: 21 Jun 91 22:41:52 GMT
References: <1991Jun21.025027.12059@novell.com> <1991Jun21.215316.25312@bronze.ucs.indiana.edu>
Organization: 'twixt Dali and Dada
Lines: 35

rschmidt@copper.ucs.indiana.edu (roy schmidt) <1991Jun21.215316.25312@bronze.ucs.indiana.edu> :
| An endless loop is *not* recursion.  *This* is recursion:

Unfortunately, "recursion" is one of those technical words whose exact
meaning varies with the technique.  For computer scientists, an endless
loop indeed is not recursion.  Recursion involves the notion of referring
to oneself, typically through a subroutine call (viz. the main() example).
However, to a mathematician recursion has a more general meaning, more
closely tied to its root word -- which is "recur".  For the computer
scientist it is useful to distinguish between "recursion" and "iteration",
but in a mathematical sense these are merely two styles of the same
fundamental behavior.

Here is the xWebster definition, from iuvax.cs.indiana.edu:

- re-cur-sion 
- ri-'ker-zhen\ n
- [LL recursion-, recursio, fr. recursus, pp. of recurrere]
- (1616)
- 1: RETURN
- 2: the determination of a succession of elements (as numbers or functions)
-      by operation on one or more preceding elements according to
-      a rule or formula involving a finite number of steps 

Comment: endlessness is not fundamental to recursion, whether you're a
mathematician or a computer scientist.  It's just the property that
makes it pointless to wait for the final answer to appear... 

Mathematics:
	If you don't agree with this article, then
		go to the beginning and reread it all.

Computer Science:
	( while	(disagrees reader this-article)
		(read-all-of this-article) )