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Ask HN: Best books on understanding recursion?

6 points by oooooppmba 10y ago

I have a basic understanding of python, but would like to understand really intuitively how recursion works. are there any good introductory books that teach about recursion?

azeirah 10y ago
Try a lisp-book, they are often heavy on recursion. One book I see recommended very often is "the little schemer", I want to pick it up some day, it'll teach you about scheme, computation and recursion. I haven't read any books about recursion itself however, only books that teach recursion amongst other topics.
niftich 10y ago
I recommend this hacker news thread: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11934434 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11934434 I also found this book helpful, when I was starting out with experience with imperative languages and thinking iteratively: https://www.amazon.com/Thinking-Recursively-Java-Eric-Roberts/dp/0471701467 https://www.amazon.com/Thinking-Recursively-Java-Eric-Robert...
bzalasky 10y ago
The book you're looking for is The Little Schemer (just noticed another commenter suggested this as well). Even if you're not that interested in LISP, you'll come away from this book with a solid grasp of "programs as recursive functions." I found that the format of the book lends itself well to reading during a commute. It's easy to pick up and work through a few pages. If you get to a section that you don't understand right away, slow down and make sure you get it before moving forward. https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/little-schemer https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/little-schemer
- sn9 10y ago
  Seconded.
siscia 10y ago
Your best shot is to use paper and pencil. Write it down the call stack and see what happens...
ehudla 10y ago
Goedel, Escher, Bach. Nothing comes close. It will blow your mind.
- selmat 10y ago
  http://ocw.mit.edu/high-school/humanities-and-social-sciences/godel-escher-bach/ http://ocw.mit.edu/high-school/humanities-and-social-science...
- ehudla 10y ago
  And speaking of DRH (Doug Hofstadter) in his Metamagical Themas collection, the last three (?) chapters are a quick and delightful introduction to Lisp and recursion.
wtf_is_frp 10y ago
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WbWb0u8bJrU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WbWb0u8bJrU Recursion is a very simple concept and really doubt you will find a whole book dedicated to it. Checkout Computer Systems: A programmers approach It explains what is happening in memory when you call a function.
deleted 10y ago
[deleted]
deepaksurti 10y ago
I would recommend Chapter 8 of `Common Lisp: A Gentle Introduction` by David T. [1] It is the most lucid explanation of recursion using the story-telling format. After working through this chapter, I have never failed to write/understand programs using recursion. [1] https://www.cs.cmu.edu/~dst/LispBook/ https://www.cs.cmu.edu/~dst/LispBook/

6 points by oooooppmba 10y ago

I have a basic understanding of python, but would like to understand really intuitively how recursion works. are there any good introductory books that teach about recursion?

azeirah 10y ago

Try a lisp-book, they are often heavy on recursion. One book I see recommended very often is "the little schemer", I want to pick it up some day, it'll teach you about scheme, computation and recursion. I haven't read any books about recursion itself however, only books that teach recursion amongst other topics.

niftich 10y ago

I recommend this hacker news thread: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11934434 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11934434 I also found this book helpful, when I was starting out with experience with imperative languages and thinking iteratively: https://www.amazon.com/Thinking-Recursively-Java-Eric-Roberts/dp/0471701467 https://www.amazon.com/Thinking-Recursively-Java-Eric-Robert...

bzalasky 10y ago

The book you're looking for is The Little Schemer (just noticed another commenter suggested this as well). Even if you're not that interested in LISP, you'll come away from this book with a solid grasp of "programs as recursive functions." I found that the format of the book lends itself well to reading during a commute. It's easy to pick up and work through a few pages. If you get to a section that you don't understand right away, slow down and make sure you get it before moving forward. https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/little-schemer https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/little-schemer

sn9 10y ago
Seconded.

siscia 10y ago

Your best shot is to use paper and pencil. Write it down the call stack and see what happens...

ehudla 10y ago

Goedel, Escher, Bach. Nothing comes close. It will blow your mind.

selmat 10y ago
http://ocw.mit.edu/high-school/humanities-and-social-sciences/godel-escher-bach/ http://ocw.mit.edu/high-school/humanities-and-social-science...
ehudla 10y ago
And speaking of DRH (Doug Hofstadter) in his Metamagical Themas collection, the last three (?) chapters are a quick and delightful introduction to Lisp and recursion.

wtf_is_frp 10y ago

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WbWb0u8bJrU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WbWb0u8bJrU Recursion is a very simple concept and really doubt you will find a whole book dedicated to it. Checkout Computer Systems: A programmers approach It explains what is happening in memory when you call a function.

deleted 10y ago

[deleted]

deepaksurti 10y ago

I would recommend Chapter 8 of `Common Lisp: A Gentle Introduction` by David T. [1] It is the most lucid explanation of recursion using the story-telling format. After working through this chapter, I have never failed to write/understand programs using recursion. [1] https://www.cs.cmu.edu/~dst/LispBook/ https://www.cs.cmu.edu/~dst/LispBook/