Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!swrinde!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!ncar!gatech!udel!haven.umd.edu!socrates.umd.edu!socrates!rockwell From: rockwell@socrates.umd.edu (Raul Rockwell) Newsgroups: comp.lang.misc Subject: Re: Will this *thread* ever halt? Message-ID: Date: 24 Jun 91 03:34:45 GMT References: <29254.Jun2219.22.4491@kramden.acf.nyu.edu> <1991Jun22.213750.18954@watserv1.waterloo.edu> <12634.Jun2400.55.0891@kramden.acf.nyu.edu> Sender: rockwell@socrates.umd.edu (Raul Rockwell) Organization: Traveller Lines: 14 In-Reply-To: brnstnd@kramden.acf.nyu.edu's message of 24 Jun 91 00: 55:08 GMT Dan Bernstein: There will always exist programs of length n that run for 2^2^{kn} steps before stopping. In *practice* very few programs exhibit such behavior. So? I can burn hours, possibly days of cpu time with a single command line. And there's not even an infinite loop to detect. It's true that in practice I try and avoid such constructs, but I don't see it as a meaningful, qualitative, statement that such things don't exist. -- Raul