From: Saptarshi Guha <saptarshi.guha@gmail.com>
To: caml-list@yquem.inria.fr
Subject: The need to specify 'rec' in a recursive function defintion
Date: Tue, 9 Feb 2010 15:50:33 -0500 [thread overview]
Message-ID: <1e7471d51002091250of7a686fq537a03c9401c868f@mail.gmail.com> (raw)
Hello,
I was wondering why recursive functions need to be specified with
"rec". According to Practical Ocaml, to "inform the compiler that the function
exists". But when entering the function definition, can't the compiler note that
the function is being defined so that when it sees the function calling itself,
it wont say "Unbound value f"?
How is the knowledge of a function being rec taken advantage of (in
ocaml) as opposed to other languages
(leaving aside tail call optimization).
Wouldn't one of way of detecting a recursive function would be to see
if the indeed the function calls itself?
These are very much beginners' questions.
Thank you
Saptarshi
next reply other threads:[~2010-02-09 20:58 UTC|newest]
Thread overview: 26+ messages / expand[flat|nested] mbox.gz Atom feed top
2010-02-09 20:50 Saptarshi Guha [this message]
2010-02-09 21:55 ` [Caml-list] " Guillaume Yziquel
2010-02-09 22:14 ` Saptarshi Guha
2010-02-09 22:01 ` Gerd Stolpmann
2010-02-09 21:58 ` Guillaume Yziquel
2010-02-09 22:34 ` Gerd Stolpmann
2010-02-10 0:07 ` Guillaume Yziquel
2010-02-10 3:10 ` Alain Frisch
2010-02-09 22:16 ` Saptarshi Guha
2010-02-09 23:29 ` Jon Harrop
2010-02-10 10:15 ` rossberg
2010-02-10 7:19 ` Andrej Bauer
2010-02-10 9:36 ` Francois Maurel
2010-02-10 10:12 ` rossberg
2010-02-09 23:33 ` Jon Harrop
2010-02-09 22:31 ` Saptarshi Guha
2010-02-10 0:12 ` Jon Harrop
2010-02-10 22:01 ` Stefan Monnier
2010-02-10 22:25 ` [Caml-list] " Till Varoquaux
2010-02-11 1:48 ` Jon Harrop
2010-02-15 15:46 ` Stefan Monnier
2010-02-15 17:33 ` [Caml-list] " Jon Harrop
2010-02-15 20:36 ` Stefan Monnier
2010-02-16 14:42 ` Stefan Monnier
2010-02-16 16:21 ` [Caml-list] " Ashish Agarwal
2010-02-11 6:48 oleg
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