Why does 1**2**3**4**5 raise a MemoryError?

[Dan Sommers]

On Mon, 01 Apr 2013 21:45:30 -0700, Tim Roberts wrote:

> morphex <morphex at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>>While we're on the subject, wouldn't it be nice to have some cap there
>>so that it isn't possible to more or less block the system with large
>>exponentiation?
> 
> There IS a cap.  It's called the "MemoryError" exception.
> 
> But, seriously, what would you have it do instead?

One day late:

http://developers.slashdot.org/story/13/04/01/2230220/erlang-getting-too-
big-to-fail-process-flag