Re:Tail Call Optimization: The Musical
by jacquesm on Sunday January 08, 2023 @12:34PM
(#34301092)
That's mostly an implementation detail though, the thread switch could happen just about anywhere. Function calls are a convenient stopping point but the way the reductions are implemented in Erlang it could theoretically be done on any boundary.
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It's an implementation detail, but it's very convenient and simplifying, like a lot of Erlang implementation details.
If you take out enough simplifying implementation details, you no longer have a powerful system built from simple parts.
In this particular case though I don't think it would matter much. I've looked pretty closely at how the BEAM does it's thing and it's a work of art, this particular trade-off is more one of convenience than of necessity. But you are right that Erlang is full of such clever (and beautiful) tricks which make it a very interesting codebase to study.