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Just for fun: Shortest InputForm to achieve a given Kernel error

• To: mathgroup at smc.vnet.net
• Subject: [mg82031] Just for fun: Shortest InputForm to achieve a given Kernel error
• From: "Andrew Moylan" <andrew.j.moylan at gmail.com>
• Date: Wed, 10 Oct 2007 04:21:55 -0400 (EDT)

"1/0" is a string of length 3 which, when interpreted as InputForm (in a
clean Kernel), generates a Power::infy error:

ToExpression["1/0", InputForm];
>> Power::infy: Infinite expression 1/0 encountered.

I think this is the shortest string with this property.

Here are some other errors and the lengths of the shortest strings I can
find to generate them:

$RecursionLimit::reclim: Recursion depth of 256 exceeded.
Input length: 4

General::ovfl: Overflow occurred in computation.
Input length: 5

(Kernel running out of memory)
Input length: 5

General::unfl: Underflow occurred in computation.
Input length: 6

$IterationLimit::itlim: Iteration limit of 4096 exceeded.
Input length: 7

Can you figure out how to generate those errors with input strings of that
length? Can you find any *shorter* solutions?

• Follow-Ups:
  • Re: Just for fun: Shortest InputForm to achieve a given Kernel error
    • From: "厉正吉" <zhengji.li@gmail.com>