At 12:08 PM 9/21/01, you wrote:
>Sorry, I disagree. Recursion is "cool", but is rarely
>simpler to understand. Especially for non-technical folks.

I don't have an opinion on that. But here's a nugget.

Back in the early 80's, I recall hearing of a study that looked at that. 
They taught introductory programming two ways: the first way was using 
recursion first, then teaching loops. The second way was the normal way: 
teaching loops first, then recursion. The claim was that the loop-first 
people thought recursion was bizarre and hard to figure out, but the 
recursion-first people thought it was natural and obvious. *Loops* were 
bizarre and hard to figure out.

I'd like to see the actual study. So many experiments in computing have 
lousy methodology.

I do get loops wrong more often than recursion.

--
Brian Marick, marick / testing.com
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