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How important are circular lists/recursive objects?
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Date: | 2007-04-02 (23:55) |
From: | Brian Hurt <bhurt@s...> |
Subject: | How important are circular lists/recursive objects? |
In Ocaml you have some ability to define recursive data structures. The classic example of this is the circular list: let rec example = 1 :: 2 :: example;; There are obvious limitations to this sort of trick: # let rec example = List.map (fun x -> x + 1) (1 :: 2 :: example);; This kind of expression is not allowed as right-hand side of `let rec' # The question is: if this behavior was completely outlawed, and either you couldn't build up circular lists/recursive data structures of this type at all, or had to call special functions (List.circularize, say), to create them, would this be a signifigant problem? Does anyone actually use this construct, and if so, for what? Brian