Many languages and data structures are of a recursive nature, repeating structures as sub-structures. Arithmetic expressions, virtually all programming languages, and various XML schema definitions are well-known examples. There are several difficulties in writing software operating on such data: For instance, due to stack usage issues it may not be appropriate to use recursive function calls. Furthermore, elaborate solutions are required for efficient memory representations and parsing.
This book introduces a generic approach applicable to the processing of any kind of data with a recursive...