Article View: comp.lang.misc
Article #3809Re: The Halting Problem is _not_ solvable on real com
From: Rahul Dhesi
Date: Fri, 10 May 1991 19:18
Date: Fri, 10 May 1991 19:18
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1360 bytes
In <1991May10.155454.2239@maths.nott.ac.uk> anw@maths.nott.ac.uk (Dr A.
N. Walker) writes:
>Suppose you write a [purported] halting problem solver. I'll
>assume it's in C, so you have a program source called, say, "fred.c",
>which compiles into a binary program "fred", running under Unix. The
>idea is that you call
> $ fred jim.c
Suppose jim.c halts when given certain inputs and does not halt when
given certain other inputs. The halting problem in this case has not
been correctly defined, since the command line "fred jim.c" does not
specify the inputs given to jim.c. We we really ought to be saying
% fred jim.c fred.c
where jim.c is the program whose halting characteristics are being
tested, and fred.c is the input that jim.c will be assumed to read when
it executes.
--
Rahul Dhesi <dhesi@cirrus.COM>
UUCP: oliveb!cirrusl!dhesi
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Path: arc1-ca.pugleaf.net!utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!sun-barr!olivea!tymix!cirrusl!ss262!dhesi From: dhesi%cirrusl@oliveb.ATC.olivetti.com (Rahul Dhesi) Newsgroups: comp.lang.misc Subject: Re: The Halting Problem is _not_ solvable on real com Message-ID: <3125@cirrusl.UUCP> Date: 10 May 91 19:18:48 GMT References: <2990@optima.cs.arizona.edu> <1991May10.155454.2239@maths.nott.ac.uk> Sender: news@cirrusl.UUCP Reply-To: Rahul Dhesi <dhesi@cirrus.COM> Lines: 23