@@ -112,6 +112,8 @@ mod prim_bool { }
112112///
113113/// # `!` and generics
114114///
115+ /// ## Infalliable errors
116+ ///
115117/// The main place you'll see `!` used explicitly is in generic code. Consider the [`FromStr`]
116118/// trait:
117119///
@@ -140,9 +142,59 @@ mod prim_bool { }
140142/// [`Ok`] variant. This illustrates another behaviour of `!` - it can be used to "delete" certain
141143/// enum variants from generic types like `Result`.
142144///
145+ /// ## Infinite loops
146+ ///
147+ /// While [`Result<T, !>`] is very useful for removing errors, `!` can also be used to removed
148+ /// successes as well. If we think of [`Result<T, !>`] as "if this function returns, it has not
149+ /// errored," we get a very intuitive idea of [`Result<!, E>`] as well: if the function returns, it
150+ /// *has* errored.
151+ ///
152+ /// For example, consider the case of a simple web server, which can be simplified to:
153+ ///
154+ /// ```ignore (hypothetical-example)
155+ /// loop {
156+ /// let (client, request) = get_request().expect("disconnected");
157+ /// let response = request.process();
158+ /// response.send(client);
159+ /// }
160+ /// ```
161+ ///
162+ /// Currently, this isn't ideal, because we simply panic whenever we fail to get a new connection.
163+ /// Instead, we'd like to keep track of this error, like this:
164+ ///
165+ /// ```ignore (hypothetical-example)
166+ /// loop {
167+ /// match get_request() {
168+ /// Err(err) => break err,
169+ /// Ok((client, request)) => {
170+ /// let response = request.process();
171+ /// response.send(client);
172+ /// },
173+ /// }
174+ /// }
175+ /// ```
176+ ///
177+ /// Now, when the server disconnects, we exit the loop with an error instead of panicking. While it
178+ /// might be intuitive to simply return the error, we might want to wrap it in a [`Result<!, E>`]
179+ /// instead:
180+ ///
181+ /// ```ignore (hypothetical-example)
182+ /// fn server_loop() -> Result<!, ConnectionError> {
183+ /// Ok(loop {
184+ /// let (client, request) = get_request()?;
185+ /// let response = request.process();
186+ /// response.send(client);
187+ /// })
188+ /// }
189+ /// ```
190+ ///
191+ /// Now, we can use `?` instead of `match`, and the return type makes a lot more sense: if the loop
192+ /// ever stops, it means that an error occurred.
193+ ///
143194/// [`String::from_str`]: str/trait.FromStr.html#tymethod.from_str
144195/// [`Result<String, !>`]: result/enum.Result.html
145196/// [`Result<T, !>`]: result/enum.Result.html
197+ /// [`Result<!, E>`]: result/enum.Result.html
146198/// [`Ok`]: result/enum.Result.html#variant.Ok
147199/// [`String`]: string/struct.String.html
148200/// [`Err`]: result/enum.Result.html#variant.Err
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