Re: [Chicken-users] Good way to code the equivalent to this?

[Tobia Conforto]

Elf wrote:
> > (define a
> >   (alist->hash-table
> >     (let loop ((i 0))
> >       (if (fx= 250000 i)
> >           '()
> >           (cons (cons (random 500000)
> >                       (random 500000))
> >                 (loop (fx+ 1 i)))))
> >     =))
>
> for an improvement in time (surprisingly), use
>
> (define a
>   (alist->hash-table
>     (let loop ((i 0)
>                (r '()))
>       (if (fx= 250000 i)
>           r
>           (loop (fx+ 1 i)
>                 (cons (cons (random 500000)
>                             (random 500000))
>                       r))))
>     =))
>
> ...there are a lot more minor GCs this way

Why is it surprising that the tail-recursive version performs better?   
And why do you say it has more GC?  Isn't it supposed to produce less  
garbage?


Tobia