Revision as of 13:49, 14 November 2008 by Aoser (Talk)

First of all, when we say that the program halts, does this mean that the program comes to a final answer, and therefore stops running? I believe that this is what it means, so I'm going to take that as a fact. I just don't get why trying to solve the halting problem is a very smart idea, or even logical. Let's say i invite a program that tells us if a program halts while running a certain value. Well, that is great, but what is the actual value? One might say, well now you know that you can get an actual value when the program is run with the specific value. This is true, but wouldn't it be better to just write your program and put in the value and let it run for a long time? If you don't do this, you have to write your program, then say to yourself, I wonder if this program halts with this value. Then you spend a really long time trying to write another program telling you whether your original problem halts or not. I am basically just thinking out loud here, and I by no means claim to be educated on this subject. In fact, I am uneducated on this subject. However, I just want to see if anyone shares these beliefs, or knows of a way to show my logic is flawed. --Aoser 17:49, 14 November 2008 (UTC)

Alumni Liaison

Prof. Math. Ohio State and Associate Dean
Outstanding Alumnus Purdue Math 2008

Jeff McNeal