Impressed

[Stuart]

On Friday, 27 July 2012 at 21:59:33 UTC, Paulo Pinto wrote:
> On Friday, 27 July 2012 at 19:14:29 UTC, Stuart wrote:
>> On Friday, 27 July 2012 at 19:09:27 UTC, Paulo Pinto wrote:
>>> On Friday, 27 July 2012 at 19:04:07 UTC, Stuart wrote:
>>>>
>>>> Recursion isn't just a security risk - it's a performance 
>>>> hit as well.
>>>
>>> Only in languages without tail call optimizations.
>>
>> Which is pretty much all of them.
>>
>> Scheme does it, and probably HOPE too; but bugger-all you 
>> could write a real program in, like .NET or C++. I mean, we're 
>> in bloody FORTRAN territory here. What use is that for writing 
>> Windows applications?
>>
>> Does D have tail call optimisation?
>
>
> Well, at least all of these:
>
> - Scheme
> - Haskell
> - OCaml
> - F#
> - Erlang
> - Clojure
> - Some C and C++ compilers (gcc, Intel, MSVC in release mode)
> - Most commercial Lisp compilers

So, as I said, nothing you can write a real program in - except 
possibly for F#. The possibility of "some" C compilers supporting 
it doesn't mean you can rely on the feature being present.

> Yes D compilers also do tail call optimizations in certain 
> cases, even if not specified in the language spec

If it's not specified in the language spec - and if it's only "in 
certain cases" - how can you rely on it?