Infinite types

[Jeffrey A. Scofield]

Greetings.

Say I have the following function, adapted from Pierce, Types and
Programming languages:

    f n () = (n, f (n + 1))

Now, this function fails to typecheck in ghc 6.0.1 because the
subexpression f (n + 1) has the infinite type t = () -> (t1, t)
And so I assume (perhaps wrongly?) that f is ill-typed in Haskell 98.

I have two questions:

1.  How can I tell from the Haskell 98 Revised Report that this
    function isn't allowed?  The discussions of typing in the Report
    generally defer to the ``standard Hindley-Milner analysis.''
    Is this really enough to tell that the function isn't well-typed
    in Haskell?  I concede that I haven't read the cited Hindley and
    Damas/Milner papers, but it seems like there might be more to
    say about what is and isn't allowed.

2.  Is there by chance a compiler option for ghc that causes the
    restriction to be dropped?

I don't need this kind of function for anything practical (and I
realize I can get an equivalent effect with an algebraic datatype).
I'm just trying to figure out what typing restrictions (if any) are
implicitly assumed in the Report.  (Generally, this is the kind of
stuff I don't know, as a relative newcomer to fp.)

Regards,

Jeff Scofield (PhD)
Seattle