tail call optimization

last call optimisation
tail call optimisation
tail call optimization

   <programming> (Or "tail call optimisation") Discarding the
   immediate calling context ({call stack} {frame}) when the last
   action of a function or procedure, A, is to call another
   function or procedure, B.  B will then return directly to A's
   caller, or possibly further up the call stack if the
   optimisation has been applied to several consecutive calls.

   Last call optimisation allows arbitrarily deep nesting of
   procedure calls without consuming memory to store useless
   environments.  This is particularly useful in the special case
   of {tail recursion optimisation}, where a procedure's last
   action is to call itself (possibly indirectly).

   (2007-03-16)