Re: Alan Turing's Halting Problem is Incorrect (FINAL PART)

From: Peter Olcott (olcott_at_worldnet.att.net)
Date: 07/09/04 

Date: Fri, 09 Jul 2004 12:31:01 GMT

> >That "limitation" only applies to programs that intentionally thwart
> >the WillHalt() function. Because of this the` "limitation" is an
> >artificial contrivance that does not apply to the set of programs
> >intended to do useful work.
> >
>
> Has it never occurred to you what the primary use of program that
> solves halting problems would be? Since we usually want our programs
> to halt, we would use such a program to detect ones that don't match
> the programmers intent. As such, it wouldn't be much use if it worked
> correctly only for programs that do useful work.
>
> Martin

It would only provide a critique in English from an infinite set
of possible critiques, thus the counter-example program can
not wait for any particular result, and act accordingly.

The question would not be does this program halt (Which is
pretty much an obsolete question now anyway, given that
many modern programs remaining in an IO loop until commanded
to stop). The question would now be: Explain to me the details
pertaining to whether or not this program accomplishes X,
where X forms the specification for what the program is intended
to accomplish.