🚀 go-pugleaf

Followup-To: comp.lang.misc
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Organization: Interactive Systems Corp., Santa Monica, CA
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In article <P3iZ21w164w@mantis.co.uk> mathew@mantis.co.uk (CNEWS MUST DIE!) writes:
>jallen@csserv2.ic.sunysb.edu (Joseph Allen) writes:
>[ On solving the halting problem: ]
>>
>> No, it can be done!  Really!  Just don't allow loops, gotos or recursion.
>
>Or I/O.
>
>> Now who wants to write a compiler in a language with these restrictions?
>
>More importantly, who wants to use it?

Historical note:  The first digital machine that I used (in 1953) had these
properties.  It was an IBM CPC (Card Programmed Calculator).  The machine
did not have a program store (it did have a small data store).  The way it
worked was that it read a card which contained a few instructions.  The
instructions were executed and the next card was read.  The process continued
until it ran out of cards and halted.  I used it to reduce wind tunnel data.
One of the models I tested was a Sparrow missile.  I noticed that Sparrows
were used in our latest war.

The machine was extremely useful compared to the alternative, pencil, paper
and a desk calculator.

BTW: Most early machines were called calculators.  Computer was a job title.

    Marv Rubinstein