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Non-terminating programs | 354 comments | Create New Account
Comments belong to whoever posts them. Please notify us of inappropriate comments.
Non-terminating programs
Authored by: Wol on Monday, November 26 2012 @ 04:04 PM EST
But Knuth is, I believe, a *Computer* *Scientist*. Okay, that is a type of
mathematician, but especially in his day, computer algorithms were expected to
terminate.

But would you say the formula to calculate eg a cos is NOT an algorithm? There
are plenty of mathematical algorithms that do not terminate.

Let's assume you are correct in saying an algorithm must terminate. Okay. We now
no longer have any algorithms that can calculate pi. Or e. Or any other
mathematical entity that is an irrational number. Oops. How are we now supposed
to find out what they are?

The computer algorithm is obviously going to terminate if programmed correctly -
when the precision being calculated is beyond the ability of the computer to
store it, then the algorithm should terminate. But if your aim is to
"calculate pi", the act of termination will corrupt the answer ...

Cheers,
Wol

[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]

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