Earlier quoted context omitted.
Your example of nested functions with default arguments does not correspond to what derived implicits do. As a result of implicit resolution, an expression with an arbitrary number of subexpressions may be synthesized, the shape of which depends on the types involves. Default parameters simply cannot do that. The example you give to justify "recursion is quite restricted" is not a restriction on recursion at all, it'…
> does not correspond to what derived implicits do I did not claim it did. The first example disproved ionforce's claim that default values cannot be constructed dynamically. > Define `a` as `y` to shadow the function parameter, Whoops, yes that's correct. I didn't realise this was possible.
But I don't think that is what they meant. I think they meant something along the lines of what I said above:
> an expression with an arbitrary number of subexpressions may be synthesized, the shape of which depends on the types involves