Tail call optimization decorator, from https://code.activestate.com/recipes/474088/

tail_call_optimization.py

#!/usr/bin/env python2
# This program shows off a python decorator(
# which implements tail call optimization. It
# does this by throwing an exception if it is
# it's own grandparent, and catching such
# exceptions to recall the stack.

import sys

class TailRecurseException:
    def __init__(self, args, kwargs):
        self.args = args
        self.kwargs = kwargs

def tail_call_optimized(g):
    """
    This function decorates a function with tail call
    optimization. It does this by throwing an exception
    if it is it's own grandparent, and catching such
    exceptions to fake the tail call optimization.

    This function fails if the decorated
    function recurses in a non-tail context.
    """
    def func(*args, **kwargs):
        f = sys._getframe()
        if f.f_back \
                and f.f_back.f_back \
                and f.f_back.f_back.f_code == f.f_code:
            raise TailRecurseException(args, kwargs)
        else:
            while 1:
                try:
                    return g(*args, **kwargs)
                except TailRecurseException, e:
                    args = e.args
                    kwargs = e.kwargs
    func.__doc__ = g.__doc__
    return func

@tail_call_optimized
def factorial(n, acc=1):
    "calculate a factorial"
    if n == 0:
        return acc
    return factorial(n-1, n*acc)

print factorial(10000)
# prints a big, big number,
# but doesn't hit the recursion limit.

@tail_call_optimized
def fib(i, current = 0, next = 1):
    if i == 0:
        return current
    else:
        return fib(i - 1, next, current + next)

print fib(10000)
# also prints a big number,
# but doesn't hit the recursion limit.