I see, thanks for the clarifications. > having no global variables, just lexical variables at the top level That is what OCaml does. Compare Racket: Welc

I see, thanks for the clarifications. > having no global variables, just lexical variables at the top level That is what OCaml does. Compare Racket: Welcome to Racket v5.3.6. > (define (countdown n) (if (> n 0) (cons n (countdown (- n 1))) '(LiftOff))) > (countdown 10) '(10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 LiftOff) > (define cd countdown) > (countdown 10) '(10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 LiftOff) > (cd 10) '(10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 LiftOff) > (define (countdown n) (if (> n 0) (cons n (countdown (- n 2))) '(LiftOff))) > (countdown 10) '(10 8 6 4 2 LiftOff) > (cd 10) '(10 9 7 5 3 1 LiftOff) to OCaml: OCaml version 4.01.0 # let rec countdown n = if n > 0 then n :: (countdown (n - 1)) else [0];; val countdown : int -> int list = <fun> # countdown 10;; - : int list = [10; 9; 8; 7; 6; 5; 4; 3; 2; 1; 0] # let cd = countdown;; val cd : int -> int list = <fun> # cd 10;; - : int list = [10; 9; 8; 7; 6; 5; 4; 3; 2; 1; 0] # let rec countdown n = if n > 0 then n :: (countdown (n - 2)) else [0];; val countdown : int -> int list = <fun> # countdown 10;; - : int list = [10; 8; 6; 4; 2; 0] # cd 10;; - : int list = [10; 9; 8; 7; 6; 5; 4; 3; 2; 1; 0] which is way better in the "principle of least astonishment" department (at least in that case).