Circular reference in default type parameter crashes compiler

[jcalz]

TypeScript Version: 2.3 and up

Code

class SelfReference<T = SelfReference<string>> {}

Expected behavior:
The compiler either accepts it (so that new SelfReference() has the type SelfReference<SelfReference<string>>) or rejects it (by explicitly disallowing a circular reference in default type parameters).

Actual behavior:
The compiler goes into an infinite loop that exceeds the recursion limit:

RangeError: Maximum call stack size exceeded
  at resolveNameHelper (typescript\lib\typescript.js:26480:35)
  at resolveName (typescript\lib\typescript.js:26478:20)
  at resolveEntityName (typescript\lib\typescript.js:27128:26)
  at getTypeFromTypeReference (typescript\lib\typescript.js:31874:54)
  at getTypeFromTypeNode (typescript\lib\typescript.js:32724:28)
  at getDefaultFromTypeParameter (typescript\lib\typescript.js:31032:66)
⋮

[jcalz]

Thinking about it more, I'd say the expected behavior is that

class SelfReference<T = SelfReference<string>> {}

should be accepted. Whatever is parsing SelfReference<string> should not care about resolving the default type parameter value, since the type is explicitly given as string.

On the other hand

class SelfReference<T = SelfReference> {}

should probably be rejected, since it seems to require the existence of the infinite type SelfReference<SelfReference<SelfReference<…>>>.