[Haskell-cafe] <<loop>> error message

[Mihai Maruseac]

On Sat, Jun 22, 2013 at 12:41 AM, Omari Norman <omari at smileystation.com> wrote:
> I compiled some code with GHC 7.6.3 that produces a simple error at runtime
>
> myProgramName: <<loop>>
>
> At which point the program exits with code 1.
>
> Is there documentation for this error anywhere? Does it mean I have some
> infinite loop in my code somewhere? If so, does GHC catch all infinite
> loops? I have never gotten this error before. Thanks.

Hi,

Indeed, you have an infinite loop in your code. However, not all
infinite loops are catcheable by the mechanism employed there, it
would be very hard to do so.

Basically, your code reduces after several transformation to something
on the lines of

f = f ...

Here is a simple program:

main = do
  print g
  print $ f 3

g :: Int
g = 3

f :: Int -> Int
f x = 1 + f x

This results in an infinite loop in f but it is not caught because
there is an argument given to the function f. However, if we had

g = g + 1

This will be turned into the loop message.

--
MM
"All we have to decide is what we do with the time that is given to us"