SPEAKER 1: Come on!
Ugh, so close.
All right, had I not talked as much.
So merge sort, where is this--
SPEAKER 2: You know,
recursion is a tricky topic.
For some people, I think that
it's one of those things that
just clicks automatically.
And for others, I think
it can be quite a jump
from loops or the iterative equivalent.
SPEAKER 1: It is, and it messes
with your mind a little bit.
And it's definitely confusing
for a lot of students
that a function can call
a function, and it's
very quickly for things to spiral
out of control too, so to speak,
with your keep overruns.
But I've struggled with this too,
because at this point in the semester,
given our current problems
set in the curriculum,
there aren't all that many
compelling opportunities
to introduce recursion
unless we really force it.
And I do dare say, even our
example using sigma and summing up
a whole bunch of numbers,
it's a little bit forced.
I like it because it maps so cleanly to
a pretty simple mathematical formula,
so you get to see that equivalence.
But it really isn't until we
start stressing tree structures,
for instance, later in the term that I
think we induce that aha moment where
it finally makes sense as to when you
can bring it to bear on a problem.
SPEAKER 2: Exactly.
