How exactly does tail recursion work?

Question

I almost understand how tail recursion works and the difference between it and a normal recursion. I only don\'t understand why it doesn\'t

Answer 1

Here is a simple example that shows how recursive functions work:

long f (long n)
{

    if (n == 0) // have we reached the bottom of the ocean ?
        return 0;

    // code executed in the descendence

    return f(n-1) + 1; // recurrence

    // code executed in the ascendence

}

Tail recursion is a simple recursive function, where recurrence is done at the end of the function, thus no code is done in ascendence, which helps most compilers of high-level programming languages to do what is known as Tail Recursion Optimization, also has a more complex optimization known as the Tail recursion modulo