[pyre]

I don't consider this to be 'true' non-terminating compilation then. Interesting cases to me would be ones where the syntax itself throws the compiler into an infinite loop, not one where you explicitly tell the compiler to execute an infinite loop.

[dodedo]

"the syntax" and "where you explicitly tell the compiler" are the exact same thing. Syntax is, fundamentally, instructions to the compiler.

Some languages don't contain instructions that can instruct the compiler to loop or recurse (C, assembly, brainfuck). Some languages contain a sub-language or meta-language which can instruct the compiler to recurse (java, C++). Some languages use their native syntax to instruct the compiler, making looping or recursion trivial (Perl, Lisp).