Guy Steele: Why Object-Oriented Languages Need Tail Calls

Just how many decades does it take for a fundamental property of compiler implementation like "a proper tail call = goto + arguments" take to permeate conventional wisdom?

It's not like he's saying you need first class continuations - those can really add overhead to your computation. Properly implementing tail calls is a total win. If you need debugging help, add some keywords for it, but don't hair up your most convenient syntax for control transfer with unnecessary administrative overhead.