Problem Description
Lazy functional languages like Haskell and Miranda support features that are not found in other programming languages, including infinite lists. Consider the following simple (and useful) recursive declaration:
letrec
count n = cons n (count (n+1))
in
count 0
The function cons constructs lists, so the above declaration creates the following structure:
cons 0 (count 1)
= cons 0 (cons 1 (count 2))
= cons 0 (cons 1 (cons 2 ...))
= [0,1,2,...]
Lazy languages can do this because they only evaluate expressions that are actually used. If a program creates an infinite list and only looks at items 2 and 3 in it, the values in positions 0 and 1 are never evaluated and the list structure is only evaluated so far as the fourth node.
It is also possible to use more than one function to build an infin