Kawa — fast scripting on the Java platform
Kawa — fast scripting on the Java platform
Posted Dec 4, 2014 12:22 UTC (Thu) by ms (subscriber, #41272)In reply to: Kawa — fast scripting on the Java platform by peter-b
Parent article: Kawa — fast scripting on the Java platform
> > 1. Tail calls are actually essential for object oriented languages too
> They're not essential, but they are highly beneficial. :-) If proper tail call optimisation (PTC) was *required* for object oriented language implementations, then Python would have to provide PTC. The fact that Python doesn't is disproof by contradiction of the requirement, I think.
> They're not essential, but they are highly beneficial. :-) If proper tail call optimisation (PTC) was *required* for object oriented language implementations, then Python would have to provide PTC. The fact that Python doesn't is disproof by contradiction of the requirement, I think.
My reading is that without tail calls, you are necessarily forced to break various abstraction, encapsulation and delegation core principles of OO. To what extent that means OO languages without tail calls are not "proper" OO languages is of course debatable. However, I have a personal bias against OO generally and have no intention of trolling so I'll stop here.