Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!dali.cs.montana.edu!uakari.primate.wisc.edu!sdd.hp.com!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!ncar!noao!arizona!debray From: debray@cs.arizona.edu (Saumya K. Debray) Newsgroups: comp.lang.misc Subject: Re: Will this *thread* ever halt? Message-ID: <3409@optima.cs.arizona.edu> Date: 21 May 91 19:07:00 GMT References: <30814@dime.cs.umass.edu> Organization: U of Arizona CS Dept, Tucson Lines: 26 yodaikenchelm.cs.umass.edu (victor yodaiken) writes: > I argue that it is possible, in theory, for a C compiler to detect all > paths that lead to non-terminating loops and to flag these paths. [ ... ] > If we give X.c to the hypothical smart compiler and it tells us that > X.c contains a path that exceeds the process memory limits on this > machine, or that X.c contains a path that will cause it to enter a > non-terminating loop if "alloc" fails, then the compiler has solved > the halting problem for this code. Good. Perhaps Mr. Yodaiken would care to convince us infidels once and for all by posting some source code to do what he has so eloquently argued can be done? And if Mr. Yodaiken is unable/unwilling to do so, then is this "discussion" accomplishing anything more than blowing warm air back and forth across the networks? The proof of the pudding, Mr. Yodaiken, is in the eating. You've argued that it's possible to decide the halting problem for "real computers". So show us. -- Saumya Debray CS Department, University of Arizona, Tucson internet: debray@cs.arizona.edu uucp: uunet!arizona!debray