title: Why does a self-referencing iframe not infinitely loop and crash my machine?
body: <p>I created a simple HTML page with an <code>iframe</code> whose <code>src</code> attribute references the containing page -- in other words a self-referencing iframe.</p>
  
  <p><strong>this.html</strong></p>
  
  <pre><code>&lt;html&gt;
  &lt;head&gt;&lt;/head&gt;
  &lt;body&gt;
  &lt;iframe src="this.html"&gt;&lt;/iframe&gt;
  &lt;/body&gt;
  &lt;/html&gt;
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>Why does this not infinitely loop and crash my browser?  Also, why doesn't even IE crash at this?</p>
  
  <p>(Note: This spawned from a team discussion on the virtues and demerits of using iframes to solve problems.  You know, the 'mirror of a mirror' sort.)</p>