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You're reading from  Learn C Programming. - Second Edition

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Published inAug 2022
PublisherPackt
ISBN-139781801078450
Edition2nd Edition
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Jeff Szuhay
Jeff Szuhay
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Jeff Szuhay

Jeff Szuhay is the principal developer at QuarterTil2 which specializes in graphics-rich software chronographs for desktop environments. In his software career of over 35 years, he has engaged in a full range of development activities from systems analysis and systems performance tuning to application design, from initial development through full testing and final delivery. Throughout that time, he has taught computer applications and programming languages at various educational levels from elementary school students to university students, as well as developed and presented professional, on-site training.
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Understanding infinite loops

So far, we have considered loops that have an actual end. In most cases, this is both intended and desirable. When loops never end, either unintentionally because we goofed up somewhere or intentionally, they are called an infinite loop. There are a few special cases where an infinite loop is actually intentional. The cases are as follows:

  • When the user interacts with the program until they choose to quit the program.
  • When there is input with no known end, as in networking, where data can come at any time.
  • Operating system event loop processing. This begins upon boot-up and waits (loops) for events to happen until the system is shut down.

When you start a program that accepts user input – keyboard strokes, mouse movements, and so on – it goes into an infinite loop to process each input. We would then need to use a break, goto, or return statement in the statement-body of our infinite loop to end it.

A simplified version...

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Learn C Programming. - Second Edition
Published in: Aug 2022Publisher: PacktISBN-13: 9781801078450

Author (1)

author image
Jeff Szuhay

Jeff Szuhay is the principal developer at QuarterTil2 which specializes in graphics-rich software chronographs for desktop environments. In his software career of over 35 years, he has engaged in a full range of development activities from systems analysis and systems performance tuning to application design, from initial development through full testing and final delivery. Throughout that time, he has taught computer applications and programming languages at various educational levels from elementary school students to university students, as well as developed and presented professional, on-site training.
Read more about Jeff Szuhay