Tail Call Optimization

We hear about tail calls from time to time in the world of programming, and how they can be optimized for performance. What exactly is that, and how would such optimization work? Today, we take a closer look at tail calls, in addition to a common use case - Tail call recursion!

= Contents Page =
0:00 Introduction
0:42 Contents Page
1:13 Foundation: Code and RAM
1:59 Functions and RAM
2:22 The "Return" Problem
2:57 The Call Stack
4:06 Introduction to Tail Calls
4:39 Need for Tail Call Optimization
5:27 Tail Call Optimization
6:14 Tail Call Recursion
7:14 Benefits of Tail Calls
8:02 Conclusion

= 0612 TV =

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= NERDfirst =
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[cameronmackinnon]

This is near enough the only effective introduction to this topic on the internet. Thank you!

[blackswan]

Most underrated programming channel I have come across so far! Super clear explanations -- thank you!

[包軟體工程之路]

This is the only video I found that best explain the topic!!!
Thx A LOT

[lilitghazaryan]

Thank you veeeery much for this video!!!! I’ve been seraching all this stuff anywhere, but only your video was that best one which could explain what I wanted exactly. Such a short but very meaningful video, excellent, thank you again:)

[Jan_Jan_]

Great explanation - thank you very much.

[okay]

excellent - Interesting. A good teacher with a good understanding of the topic. Never heard of it but now fully understood.

[shoshonu]

Unsung YT hero! ✨You're a legend, mate! 👑 One of my favourite videos of yours: Priceless for anyone interested in optimization as long as TCO is implemented in your programming language of choice.

[shimadabr]

That`s the best explanation on the subject i`ve seen so far. I was watching a couple of videos and yours have the best bottom-up explanation. Only thing i found lacking was some examples with popular recursive functions (like factorial or fibonacci sequence)

[bywavy]

Explanation was very clear. Props to you.

[ballafolife]

Just saw your vid from 2014 about serialization. Very concise, and direct, and informative. I originally was searching for what pickling is in Python. You made serialization so easy to understand, that I was able to extract the info and relate it to Python pickle function even though you did not even mention it. Excellent job!

[SandeepKumar]

Thanks for this awesome content. Great illustrations. Simple is beautiful. All the best. 😊

[shadetreesam]

Thank you for this clear and informative video. The only thing I would add is perhaps a simple summary statement: A recursive function in which the recursive call is the last statement in the function can be rewritten by the optimizer to use iteration instead of recursion. Doing so reduces the stack memory used by the function and increases the runtime execution speed. It may, however, slightly increase the size of the function executable.

[jeffg]

Great video. So, if a recursive function is tc optimized, does that mean that stack allocated memory for the function is only allocated once (and reused for all recursive calls)?

[Eyetrauma]

Thanks for the overview, this is one of those terms I've certainly heard and had a vague familiarity with but this really brought it into focus.

Given the rising popularity of functional composition I can see why being able to optimize deeply nested calls would be a real boon!

[nyahhbinghi]

Still unclear to me why you wouldn't have 25 call stacks in memory if you did recursion 25 times..I guess they are just clearing out local variables and the call stack early, is that it?

[bearsbarebears]

what software do you use to make your animations/powerpoint slides?