# Tail-Call Optimization¶

Note

These slides are also available in PDF format: 4:3 PDF, 16:9 PDF, 16:10 PDF.

## Motivation¶

1. Recursion is a beautiful way to express many algorithms, as it typically makes our algorithm easier to prove.
2. Calling a function requires space on the call stack for the variables, parameters, and return address from the call.
3. What if we could translate certain kinds of recursion into loops at compile time so that we could use it feasibly?

## Tail-Calls¶

A tail-call is a function call for which the return value of the call becomes the return value of the function. For example, sqrt is the tail-call of this function:

double distance(struct point a, struct point b) {
double dx = a.x - b.x;
double dy = a.y - b.y;
return sqrt(dx * dx + dy * dy);
}


A function which is tail-recursive calls itself only as a tail-call.

## Practice 1¶

Identify the tail-call and state whether the function is tail-recursive or not.

(define (sqrt x guess)
(if (< (abs (- (expt guess 2) x)) 0.001)
guess
(sqrt x (* 0.5 (+ guess (/ x guess))))))


Hint

if is a macro and returns a result to be evaluated, rather than the arguments being evaluated first.

## Practice 2¶

Identify the tail-call and state whether the function is tail-recursive or not.

(define (map f seq)
(if seq
(cons (f (car seq))
(map f (cdr seq)))
NIL))


## Practice 3¶

Identify the tail-call and state whether the function is tail-recursive or not.

(define (fib n)
(if (< n 2)
n
(+ (fib (- n 1)) (fib (- n 2)))))


## Practice 4¶

Identify the tail-call and state whether the function is tail-recursive or not.

(define (fib-iter n a b)
(if (= n 0)
a
(fib-iter (- n 1) b (+ a b))))

(define (fib n)
(fib-iter n 0 1))


## Translating Tail-Recursion to Loops¶

To translate a tail recursive function to a loop, we can surround the function body in an infinite loop, and when we tail-call ourselves, replace that with a reassignment of our arguments and a continue.

How might this look in the code below?

int fib_iter(int n, int a, int b) {
if (n == 0) return n;
return fib_iter(n - 1, a, b);
}


## Loop Translation Example¶

Before optimization:

int fib_iter(int n, int a, int b) {
if (n == 0) return n;
return fib_iter(n - 1, a, b);
}


After optimization: (not pretty, but shows what a compiler might do)

int fib_iter(int n, int a, int b) {
while (true) {
if (n == 0) return n;
int next_n = n - 1, next_a = b, next_b = a + b;
n = next_n, a = next_a, b = next_b;
continue;
}
}


## Can we do better?¶

What if we wanted to handle circular recursive cases like this:

1. Procedure A can tail-call procedure B.
2. Procedure B can tail-call procedure C.
3. Procedure C can tail-call procedure A.

Brainstorm optimization techniques with your learning group. Think aloud!

## The Trampoline Method¶

Idea: in interpreted languages, we have an evaluator function which takes an expression and the storage context, if we make this function call functions in a loop and have our functions return what it should call next, we can get free tail-call optimization that also supports circular tail calls!

(figure on whiteboard)

## Why is TCO important to SlytherLisp?¶

The only structure for looping in SlytherLisp is recursion, so we need to be able to efficiently be able to implement loops in SlytherLisp.

You should implement TCO using the trampoline method. Hint: lisp_eval can be your trampoline.