Talk:Algorithm characterizations: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 02:44, 21 March 2010

Revision as of 07:02, 23 March 2010

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:Similarly, the way that an algorithm has "input" during the course of its computation is simply to perform the computation relative to an oracle, and consult the oracle whenever it wants additional input. So talking about algorithms with input is simply a different way about talking about oracle computations. From the point of view of the algorithm, it makes no difference if the input is typed when it is asked (as one visualizes I/O) or is piped in from a pre-existing file (as with an oracle computation). &mdash;&nbsp;Carl <small>([[User:CBM|CBM]]&nbsp;·&nbsp;[[User talk:CBM|talk]])</small> 02:30, 21 March 2010 (UTC)

::The sentence in question is in the lead of [[recursively enumerable set]] and is intended to give the reader a feel for what RE means, not a precise definition. If the algorithm in question is represented by a partial recursive function, then that function could map 1 to ''s''₁, 2 to ''s''₂, etc.. Thus each (finite) part of the output is indexed by the input, and any particular execution of the ''algorithm'' only produces a finite output while the algorithm as a whole has an infinite output. [[User:JRSpriggs|JRSpriggs]] ([[User talk:JRSpriggs|talk]]) 07:02, 23 March 2010 (UTC)