(need to reference termination metrics at some point here)
functions instead of loops (as it is in most programming languages that
allow functional programming). However, there are cases where it may be
desirable to have for loops or while loops. For loops in particular are
useful for certain parallel programming environments, such as the fork–join
model, which is
available in ATS2 through
OpenMP.
However, note that currently OpenMP for loops are only supported by using
embedded or external C code due to the difficulty in supporting #pragma omp parallel for in code generation (see the omp_for.dats example).
while loops naturally lend themselves towards waiting for some condition
to change, but unlike the use-case mentioned above using for loops, this
construct is typically easy to do with recursive functions, so while loops
are rarer in ATS2.
Need to copy most info from here https://groups.google.com/forum/#!searchin/ats-lang-users/%22for$20loop%22/ats-lang-users/NfHeSJpaq78/zjys-ug5eMUJ
Infinitely recursive functions may be a cause for a segfault. (But sometimes, one may want infinite recursion, as in a main loop; when is it not an issue?) To avoid this possibility, one can take advantage of dependent types and termination metrics, as in this example.
A main loop, useful for creating an application that will keep running until something causes it to return. This can be implemented in several ways.
Firstly,
ocaml implement main () = main() where { ... }