Subject: Re: Please help!! From: Erik Naggum <erik@naggum.no> Date: 1999/02/08 Newsgroups: comp.lang.lisp Message-ID: <3127421575197623@naggum.no> * Erik Naggum <erik@naggum.no> | if [recursive problem] is "a problem for which a recursive solution is | deemed most aesthetic", it is just meaningless, but if it actually means | something specific, I'd like to know. * Kent M Pitman <pitman@world.std.com> | Maybe that means all solutions are of this kind--capable of being reduced | to a non-recursive form--and Erik is right. that was not at all what I was trying to say or ask. all I was wasking was: is it valid to talk about _problems_ as being recursive. as I have already stated, the obvious meaning is "a problem for which a recursive solution is deemed most aesthetic", which is like defining philosphy as "anything whoever is called a philosopher does". it seems that there is nothing more to "recursive problem" that just that -- a problem to which a recursive solution is deemed most aesthetic. so, in conclusion, nothing distinguishes a recursive problem from any other problem other than the fact that after all has been said and done, the recursive solution was most appropriate. I had initially hoped there had been somewhat more of an analytical approach to this, which would have meant that "recursive problem" actually added something to the nature of recursion or of problems. maybe some other time. #:Erik -- Y2K conversion simplified: Januark, Februark, March, April, Mak, June, Julk, August, September, October, November, December.