Sven LUTHER wrote:
> 
> On Tue, Mar 28, 2000 at 11:03:36AM +1000, Max Skaller wrote:
> > Damien Doligez wrote:
> > >
> > > >From: Max Skaller <maxs@in.ot.com.au>
> > > >
> > > >Alternatively, you can just use
> > > >
> > > >       let rec x' () = ...
> > > >       and ...
> > > >       let x = x()
> > > >
> > > >in lieu of what you really wanted: (that is,
> > > >there is a workaround).
> > >
> > > But that doesn't work for "let rec x = 1 :: x", which is the most
> > > interesting feature of O'Caml's recursive value definitions.
> >
> >       It doesn't?
> >
> >       let rec x'() = 1 :: x()'
> >       let x = x'()
> 
> FYI :
> 
> bash-2.03$ ocaml
>         Objective Caml version 2.99 (99/12/08)
> 
> # let rec x = 1 :: x ;;
> val x : int list =
>   [1; 1; 1; 1; 1; 1; 1; 1; 1; 1; 1; 1; 1; 1; 1; 1; 1; 1; 1; 1; 1; 1; 1; 1; 1;
>    1; 1; 1; 1; 1; 1; 1; 1; 1; 1; 1; 1; 1; 1; 1; 1; 1; 1; 1; 1; 1; 1; 1; 1; 1;
>    1; 1; 1; 1; 1; 1; 1; 1; 1; 1; 1; 1; 1; 1; 1; 1; 1; 1; 1; 1; 1; 1; 1; 1; 1;
>    1; 1; 1; 1; 1; 1; 1; 1; 1; 1; 1; 1; 1; 1; 1; 1; 1; 1; 1; 1; 1; 1; 1; 1; 1;
>    1; 1; 1; 1; 1; 1; 1; 1; 1; 1; 1; 1; 1; 1; 1; 1; 1; 1; 1; 1; 1; 1; 1; 1; 1;
>    1; 1; 1; 1; 1; 1; 1; 1; 1; 1; 1; 1; 1; 1; 1; 1; 1; 1; 1; 1; 1; 1; 1; 1; 1;
>    1; 1; 1; 1; 1; 1; 1; 1; 1; 1; 1; 1; 1; 1; 1; 1; 1; 1; 1; 1; 1; 1; 1; 1; 1;
>    1; 1; 1; 1; 1; 1; 1; 1; 1; 1; 1; 1; 1; 1; 1; 1; 1; 1; 1; 1; 1; 1; 1; 1; 1;
>    1; 1; 1; 1; 1; 1; 1; 1; 1; 1; 1; 1; 1; 1; 1; 1; 1; 1; 1; 1; 1; 1; 1; 1; 1;
>    1; 1; 1; 1; 1; 1; 1; 1; 1; 1; 1; 1; 1; 1; 1; 1; 1; 1; 1; 1; 1; 1; 1; 1; 1;
>    1; 1; 1; 1; 1; 1; 1; 1; 1; 1; 1; 1; 1; 1; 1; 1; 1; 1; 1; 1; 1; 1; 1; 1; 1;
>    1; 1; 1; 1; 1; 1; 1; 1; 1; 1; 1; 1; 1; 1; 1; 1; 1; 1; 1; 1; 1; 1; 1; 1;
>    ...]

Ah! I withdraw my last comment: the list is constructed as instructed,
resulting in a circular list. The printer routines recognizes this,
or at least is smart enough to apply a printing limit. 

_Traversing_ the list may take infinite time, but examining 
the first n elements will not. (And the construction is 
constant time :-)

-- 
John (Max) Skaller, mailto:skaller@maxtal.com.au
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