Question

the Haulting question: say there was a computer program, decide whether the program finishes running or runs forever!?!?!

Answer 1

1234, mind if I ask you a couple questions. I see you're a new user and want to get your thoughts on some things about OpenStudy.

Answer 2

sure why not?

Answer 3

i have a concern

Answer 4

no program runs forever, is this about the philosopher's paradox?

Answer 5

for you owlfred

Answer 6

no faiona

Answer 7

Are you a student now?

Answer 8

i want to see you postulate possible value for a total computable function fiona!

Answer 9

what is your approach?

Answer 10

to not misspell people's nicknames is a good one

Answer 11

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halting_problem

Answer 12

pardon

Answer 13

oh!!!

Answer 14

i see wikipedia has answer?

Answer 15

yup.maybe çause it's hAlting not hAUlting :)

Answer 16

can i see how you would approach this problem?

Answer 17

faiona

Answer 18

i want to asses your aptitude

Answer 19

I specialize in databases, so likely by turning it over to a developer

Answer 20

are you a student?

Answer 21

??

Answer 22

The thing to realize is that the Halting Problem, technically undecidable, is basically theoretical not practical. It doesn't really connect well to the "real world" of computing. In reality, if a program seems to just keep running forever thats generally because it contains an infinite loop or has hung on some bad input. A recursive routine that does not contain a stopping condition will execute for quite a long time but will eventually eat up all the computer's stack space and crash, terminating the program. An infinite loop can technically run forever, provided it makes no changes to data stored in the computer's memory.