[algorithm] Algorithm to generate all possible permutations of a list?

in PHP

$set=array('A','B','C','D');

function permutate($set) {
    $b=array();
    foreach($set as $key=>$value) {
        if(count($set)==1) {
            $b[]=$set[$key];
        }
        else {
            $subset=$set;
            unset($subset[$key]);
            $x=permutate($subset);
            foreach($x as $key1=>$value1) {
                $b[]=$value.' '.$value1;
            }
        }
    }
    return $b;
}

$x=permutate($set);
var_export($x);