Infinite Loop

See InfiniteLoop.

An infinite loop is a software loop that has no termination conditions, or whose termination conditions will never occur. Such loops are useful for programs that run "forever" or until the machine is turned off. Such loops are not useful if they are created unintentionally: this causes programs to "hang" until terminated by some external process. The term is, of course, a misuse of the English language.

Note that an exception can cause termination of an "infinite loop" if it is not caught. See SafeLoop.

I'm sure someone would have done it first, if they could figure out how to write "Recursion" as a WikiName. -- GavinLambert

No, wait, there it is: RecursionRecursion. And I'm reminded of the dance required to save WikiPages as I'm trying to do this (AltLeftEnterRepeat). -- GavinLambert, mere minutes later

"We all know Linux is great ... it does infinite loops in 5 seconds" attributed to LinusTorvalds, but similar phrases are around for a long time.

Apple is surrounded by an InfiniteLoop, see http://www.ageekstour.com/wiki.cgi?InfiniteLoop

See Also: The StoryOfMel (the part that says "innocent loop that had no test in it")

CategoryLoops