Barend Venter (May 18 2024 at 11:29): Barend Venter (May 18 2024 at 11:29):Was trying some basic church numeral stuff and when doing exponentiation ran into this example that overflows the stack: ((((\f -> \x -> f (f x))(\f -> \x -> f (f x))))(\x -> x + 1))(0)
This is surprising to me, is there something special I need to do in Roc for this to work? GHCi returns 4.
Barend Venter (May 18 2024 at 16:07):https://github.com/roc-lang/roc/issues/6485
Thinking I might have run into this!
Brendan Hansknecht (May 18 2024 at 16:38):Compiler stack overflow or execution stack overflow?
Brendan Hansknecht (May 18 2024 at 16:39):Nothing exists for this, at least not currently
Brendan Hansknecht (May 18 2024 at 16:39):Parser is in rust currently. No plans for roc parsing in roc cureently
Barend Venter (May 18 2024 at 16:40):Given that I can wrap it in a function and it still crashed the REPL, I'm pretty confident now that it's some static analysis in the compiler. After all you can write neverEvaluated = \_ -> crash "Oh no!" without consequences, although I suppose the platform gets to choose how to handle crash and it's possible that the REPL handles it in some trivial way.
Krzysztof Kielak (May 19 2024 at 17:37):Interestingly this works:
» f1 = ((\f -> \x -> f (f x)) \f -> \x -> f (f x))
<function> : (a -> a) -> (a -> a)
» f2 = f1 (\x -> x + 1)
<function> : Num a -> Num a
» f2 0
4 : Num *
and even this:
» ff = ((\f -> \x -> f (f x)) \f -> \x -> f (f x)) (\x -> x + 1)
<function> : Num a -> Num a
» ff 0
4 : Num *
It might be useful to note that this definition breaks - so there might be some scoping problem ... just guessing
» f = ((\f -> \x -> f (f x)) \f -> \x -> f (f x)) (\x -> x + 1)
── DUPLICATE NAME ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
The f name is first defined here:
4│ f = ((\f -> \x -> f (f x)) \f -> \x -> f (f x)) (\x -> x + 1)
^
But then it's defined a second time here:
4│ f = ((\f -> \x -> f (f x)) \f -> \x -> f (f x)) (\x -> x + 1)
^
Since these variables have the same name, it's easy to use the wrong
one by accident. Give one of them a new name.
── DUPLICATE NAME ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
The f name is first defined here:
4│ f = ((\f -> \x -> f (f x)) \f -> \x -> f (f x)) (\x -> x + 1)
^
But then it's defined a second time here:
4│ f = ((\f -> \x -> f (f x)) \f -> \x -> f (f x)) (\x -> x + 1)
^
Since these variables have the same name, it's easy to use the wrong
one by accident. Give one of them a new name.
── TYPE MISMATCH ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
This expression is used in an unexpected way:
4│ f = ((\f -> \x -> f (f x)) \f -> \x -> f (f x)) (\x -> x + 1)
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
It is:
Num * -> Num *
But you are trying to use it as:
(Num a -> Num a) -> (Num a -> Num a)
Experimenting with the Y combinator, I notice something very confusing. If I shadow the name, it works, and correctly shows me a type error!
» y = (\x -> x x)(\y -> y y)
── DUPLICATE NAME ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
The y name is first defined here:
4│ y = (\x -> x x)(\y -> y y)
^
But then it's defined a second time here:
4│ y = (\x -> x x)(\y -> y y)
^
Since these variables have the same name, it's easy to use the wrong
one by accident. Give one of them a new name.
── CIRCULAR TYPE ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
I'm inferring a weird self-referential type for y:
4│ y = (\x -> x x)(\y -> y y)
^
Here is my best effort at writing down the type. You will see ∞ for
parts of the type that repeat something already printed out
infinitely.
∞ -> ∞
But if I get rid of the name shadowing and call it something else, Roc breaks!
» fix = (\x -> x x)(\y -> y y)
thread 'main' has overflowed its stack
fatal runtime error: stack overflow
fish: Job 1, 'nix run github:roc-lang/roc -- …' terminated by signal SIGABRT (Abort)
That's not too surprising. The first case just hits an error at an earlier stage in the compiler. So you get a pretty print out. The second example crashes the compiler later
Brendan Hansknecht (May 20 2024 at 00:07):I assume it is crashing in type checking, but would need to see the exact stack trace
Last updated: Jul 26 2025 at 12:14 UTC