Turing machine simulation (was Vi macros)

Dave Sill dsill at nswc-oas.arpa
Fri Feb 26 02:38:48 AEST 1988


T. J. Thompson <tj at mks.uucp> writes:
>In article <11893 at brl-adm.ARPA>, dsill at nswc-oas.arpa (Dave Sill) writes:
>> Turing machines are universal computational devices, but simulations
>> of Turing Machines are not.
>
>I would be curious to see a defence of this claim.
>Consider, for example, a simulation of a Turing machine
>run on a Turing machine.

Perhaps I should have said "Turing machines are universal
computational devices, but simulations of Turing machines are not
*necessarily* universal computational devices.

My point was that a vi-based TM simulation is not a universal
computer.

This is no longer a wizards issue.

=========
The opinions expressed above are mine.

"[Programmers who prefer to drive a shift car are not] positioned to
design interactive systems."
					-- Ted Nelson (quoted from Byte)

[But Ted, don't forget that there are customers who *prefer* manual
transmissions...]



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