Why would the performance of recursion not be very context-dependent? I would expect it to be extremely context dependent depending on how much memory is being put on the stack, cache hits and misses, and so forth. I can easily imagine optimizing performance for an unrealistic micro-benchmark that would actually hurt overall recursion performance. If there are any famous last words in optimization it's that something isn't very context-dependent, no?
Of course it is not perfect, but it is one of the best ways to get a quick idea of the speed of a language. For example if we do it in OCaml we get native machine integers and cheap function calls. If we do it in Ruby we get expensive integers and heavy weight procedure calls.
> I can easily imagine optimizing performance for an unrealistic micro-benchmark that would actually hurt overall recursion performance.
I can't. Can you explain this and give an example?
