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>Most of the people find recursion difficult but it's not. Recursion is really hard. According to https://phys.org/news/2019-08-recursive-language-modern-sim

>Most of the people find recursion difficult but it's not. Recursion is really hard. According to https://phys.org/news/2019-08-recursive-language-modern-simultaneously-years.html https://phys.org/news/2019-08-recursive-language-modern-simu... Recursive language is a relatively recent phenomenon and even now is much harder to acquire than language and grammar. Recursion is probably the biggest thing that separates our communication from that of other species and gives such a big advantage. That being said, if you are reading HN, you have already mastered a recursive human language. You have the ability to understand recursion. Just be aware that it is one of the more complicated things your brain does, and be patient with yourself. Keep working at it, and eventually you will get it. Don't become discouraged by the process and give up.

o_p 7y ago
Everyone already understands recursion, they just dont know it. If you learned to count, you learned recursion.
tempguy9999 7y ago
While recursive human language and recursion in computing terms are related, I really don't see they gain much from each other. > Recursive language is a relatively recent phenomenon Is there any evidence it's more recent than non-recursive language acquisition, evolutionarily (rather than developmentally ie child to adult)? For reference for others in this thread, an example of linguistic recursion is <https://en.wikipedia.org https://en.wikipedia.org /wiki/This_Is_the_House_That_Jack_Built> This is the horse and the hound and the horn That belonged to the farmer sowing his corn That kept the rooster that crowed in the morn That woke the judge all shaven and shorn That married the man all tattered and torn That kissed the maiden all forlorn That milked the cow with the crumpled horn That tossed the dog that worried the cat That killed the rat that ate the malt That lay in the house that Jack built.
justinv 7y ago
Thanks for sharing this article!
ErotemeObelus 7y ago
Any primitive recursive algorithm can be trivially transformed into a series of for loops and a stack object. Any recursive algorithm can be trivially translated into a series of white loops and a stack object. An exercise for people who don't understand recursion: get recursive algorithms from a book and use your built in Python or whatever stack class and make them into for loops in a cookie-cutter way. This is making a myth about the Big Conceptual Leap from small for loops into Big Recursion. It is literally impossible to not do recursion if you understand for loops. At the very worst, you can write it out in for loops first and then translate it piece-by-piece.

o_p 7y ago

Everyone already understands recursion, they just dont know it. If you learned to count, you learned recursion.

tempguy9999 7y ago

While recursive human language and recursion in computing terms are related, I really don't see they gain much from each other. > Recursive language is a relatively recent phenomenon Is there any evidence it's more recent than non-recursive language acquisition, evolutionarily (rather than developmentally ie child to adult)? For reference for others in this thread, an example of linguistic recursion is <https://en.wikipedia.org https://en.wikipedia.org /wiki/This_Is_the_House_That_Jack_Built> This is the horse and the hound and the horn That belonged to the farmer sowing his corn That kept the rooster that crowed in the morn That woke the judge all shaven and shorn That married the man all tattered and torn That kissed the maiden all forlorn That milked the cow with the crumpled horn That tossed the dog that worried the cat That killed the rat that ate the malt That lay in the house that Jack built.

justinv 7y ago

Thanks for sharing this article!

ErotemeObelus 7y ago

Any primitive recursive algorithm can be trivially transformed into a series of for loops and a stack object. Any recursive algorithm can be trivially translated into a series of white loops and a stack object. An exercise for people who don't understand recursion: get recursive algorithms from a book and use your built in Python or whatever stack class and make them into for loops in a cookie-cutter way. This is making a myth about the Big Conceptual Leap from small for loops into Big Recursion. It is literally impossible to not do recursion if you understand for loops. At the very worst, you can write it out in for loops first and then translate it piece-by-piece.