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It's completely bizarre that it is taught in this way. Knuth is absolutely right. Recursion is easy but the problem is computers don't actually work that way. I
by black-tea 8y ago
It's completely bizarre that it is taught in this way. Knuth is absolutely right. Recursion is easy but the problem is computers don't actually work that way. I don't understand how anyone who has programmed for a while can think recursion is the cool or tricky thing to do.
Even worse is that recursion is taught using stupid examples like the fibonacci numbers rather than something that actually needs it like quicksort.
- svat 8y agoI agree: as much as I love the Fibonacci numbers, it's better to teach recursion with something like (say) implementing directory traversal (printing all files under a current directory, like ls -R) -- some problem both where the recursive nature of the problem itself is obvious, and where it would be more awkward to implement without recursion. I'm looking forward to seeing what problems he thinks really merit recursion.