Re: Algorithms and math-history?

From: Pascal Bourguignon (spam_at_thalassa.informatimago.com)
Date: 06/10/04 

Date: 10 Jun 2004 22:39:15 +0200

"Lance Lamboy" <lance.lamboy@lamboy.nospam.com> writes:

> On Thu, 10 Jun 2004 17:14:01 +0000, Ray Dillinger wrote:
>
> > Jorn Barger wrote:
> >
> >> So I'm wondering if all those novel algorithms also represent 'streams'
> >> that might someday be merged with the old mathematical streams, and
> >> whether there's an abstract science of algorithms already searching in
> >> that direction...?
> >
> > Every computer program is a mathematical algorithm. On the math side,
> > you can study set theory, discrete mathematics, and combinatorics. On
> > the computing side, you can study computability and algorithmic
> > complexity - you'll see the connection.
>
> This is not true. One of the defining features of an algorithm is that it
> must terminate in a finite time. Some computer programs are designed to
> run forever. For example, a word processing program will keep going until
> the user exits (or the computer crashes).

This is nitpicking, when all known computer implementations run inside
a finite universe. What importance if you have a proof that your
algorithm finishes in a _finite_ time of 40 billion years, when the
end of the universe is in 15 billion years? 

-- 
__Pascal_Bourguignon__                     http://www.informatimago.com/
There is no worse tyranny than to force a man to pay for what he doesn't
want merely because you think it would be good for him.--Robert Heinlein
http://www.theadvocates.org/

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