Newsgroups: comp.theory
Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!wuarchive!m.cs.uiuc.edu!gillies
From: gillies@m.cs.uiuc.edu (Don Gillies)
Subject: Re: Question on halting problem
Message-ID: <1991Apr26.135918.8607@m.cs.uiuc.edu>
Keywords: for 10 bonus points...
Organization: University of Illinois, Dept. of Comp. Sci., Urbana, IL
References: <Apr.25.08.44.05.1991.23782@athos.rutgers.edu>
Date: Fri, 26 Apr 91 13:59:18 GMT
Lines: 16

masticol@athos.rutgers.edu (Steve Masticola) writes:

>Give the source code for a sequential program (in the language of your
>choice) such that:

>* It is undecidable whether the program terminates.

We pitiful humans are unable to build turing machines; nobody has ever
constructed a computer that was more than a DFA, and nobody ever will
(since all computers have a fixed amount of memory).

So in a practical sense, no such program exists.
-- 



