Talk:Recursion (computer science)

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[edit] Arm's-Length Recursion

Should there be something about arm's length recursion in this article? -- Skaraoke 01:26, 2 March 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Generative (synthetic) recursion

It would be nice to have a simple code example for generative recursion.

--84.9.82.184 16:31, 26 April 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Hodge-podge of languages used in Wikipedia

I realize that every programmer has his/her own favorite language, but reading a programming-related article that switches from one language to another is ridiculous and unnecessary. Does anyone object to re-writing each of the algorithms in a single language? I propose either Python or Java, since they're both very widely used.

-Why use a programming language at all? Programming examples should simply be written in pseudo-code, in my opinion. -Adam —Preceding unsigned comment added by 216.125.160.51 (talk) 22:00, 2 June 2008 (UTC)

FYI, the current Manual of Style draft for code samples and algorithms can be found here: (Note that I don't agree with everything that is currently written in this draft.) Wikipedia:WikiProject_Computer_science/Manual_of_style_(computer_science)#Style_guidelines

In my opinion we should provide pseudo-code and a single programming language that is well known to a broad audience. Pseudo-code can help in case someone does not understand the provided programming language example. However, for many people it is not always easy to translate pseudo-code into their favourite programming language. Many autodidactic programmers did not learn programming by studying pseudo-code first and might never have seen it before. An example that "compiles out of the box" is often much more helpful.

If possible, I suggest using C because it is relatively old (but still around and important) and it is taught in a number of schools and universities. Many modern languages such as C++, Java, C# and JavaScript are derived from it, share a similar syntax and thus belong to the C-family of languages. It is often trivial to translate algorithms in C code to Java. Other programming languages such as functional (e.g. Scheme) or dynamic languages (e.g. Python) should be used for instance if a specific concept or language construct is needed in the example but not available in C. Ghettoblaster (talk) 09:19, 3 June 2008 (UTC)