Re: [stack] disallowing recursive definitions

Joe Bowbeer scripsit:

> But he mentions recursion favorably in the letter you were using to indict
> it.  I'm confused.

He says that humans are good at (mathematical) induction, which is one
way of understanding recursion.  You can't expect him to express his
whole philosophy of programming in a squib; look into _A Discipline of
Programming_ for the details.

> But so, in my opinion, can concatenative programming, so I have trouble
> understanding your complaint.  If you are saying that adding recursion
> to concatenative programming is beyond the pale, I think I could agree
> with that.

I was speaking without particular reference to concatenative programming
(off-topic, I know).

-- 
John Cowan  <[email protected]>  http://ccil.org/~cowan
Micropayment advocates mistakenly believe that efficient allocation of
resources is the purpose of markets.  Efficiency is a byproduct of market
systems, not their goal.  The reasons markets work are not because users
have embraced efficiency but because markets are the best place to allow
users to maximize their preferences, and very often their preferences are
not for conservation of cheap resources.  --Clay Shirkey