3 ms·

tldr version: Because you want (i) an acyclic function call tree of (ii) predictable depth.

• eropple 11y ago
  That reminds me--a friend was telling me earlier today about a piece of software he was working on that only allowed forward jumps. (It ensures that the program halts.)
  • TheLoneWolfling 11y ago
    It does slightly more than that - it provides a cheap computation of the upper bound of how long it will take.
    • eropple 11y ago
      Yeah, that too. Come to think of it, that was probably more his concern than just halting.
      • TheLoneWolfling 11y ago
        Going out on a limb here, but I don't suppose it was for a superoptimizer?