Probably because while() and for(;;) are also infinite loops in C (according to MS's compiler and gcc).

I use for (;;) regularly and read it as "for ever". Perl6 will provide loop { } for that.

Update: I can't reproduce my earlier results. I must have confused my for (;;) test results for those of the while () test.

I get this trying to compile while() ; with gcc 4.1.3:

% LANG=C cc 1.c
1.c: In function 'main':
1.c:2: error: expected expression before ')' token
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--kap

Yes - it's a syntax error with gcc-3.4.5 and Visual Studio 7.0, too. (I think ikegami is mistaken about this.)

Cheers,
Rob

$ perl -MO=Deparse -e 'while() { print "1\n" }'
while (1) {
    print "1\n";
}
-e syntax OK
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$ perl -MO=Deparse -e 'print "1\n" while ()'
print "1\n" while ();
-e syntax OK
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Casiano

The syntax for the suffix notation is

EXPR while EXPR;
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and not

EXPR while ( EXPR );
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Therefore, you are comparing apples and oranges.
In while() { print "1\n" }, the expression is "".
In print "1\n" while ();, the expression is "()", the empty list, which is false in boolean context.

You're right about there being an inconsistency, though, just not the one you mentioned.

>perl -MO=Deparse -e"while() { print 1 }"
while (1) {
    print 1;
}
-e syntax OK

>perl -MO=Deparse -e"print 1 while;"
syntax error at -e line 1, at EOF
-e had compilation errors.
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