The Python debate on Tail Calls

The Beginning It started with an innocent enough blog post by Guido van Rossum commenting on Python’s lack of tail call elimination in Python’s history.  Okay, not even commenting – it was a parenthetical sentence fragment! “Origins of Python’s “Functional” Features” on The History of Python The internet went crazy with comments.  Guido attempted to …

CLOS circa 1987, Dynamic Dispatch in C++/C#

As reported by programming musings, http://www.archive.org/details/DanielGB1987 Common Lisp Object Standard presentation, by Daniel G Bobrow. Some reflections: Fast Multiple Dispatch "[for dynamic method resolution] A cache of 1000 entries is hit 98% of the time".  Assuming this is accurate, it explains how you could get by with the cached virtual dispatch lookup that the desktop …