Comment on Re-formalizing PD

Wed, 29 Apr 2009 14:44:02 GMT

In these terms, I'm describing a solution to scenario 1, and its limitations, that is it can't solve all scenarios 1 (naturally, at least because of the halting problem). The Something Else are the limitations, for example your solution to scenatio 1 requires Something Else in a form of a fixed prefix. This solution is not terribly general, as it won't accept even equivalent programs that include an additional comment in the body of the prefix.

Analyzing a formal model of the program gives more generality, and stronger methods of analysis give more generality still. If you are the program for which you introduce these properties, you'd also want to pick a property that tells that you achieve your goals, or as high in your preference order as you can get.

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