Comment on Reductionism

Thu, 12 Jan 2012 23:00:32 GMT

In other words, the same Lisp code will result in slightly different behavior on a Mac than it would on a Linux machine. The difference may not be enough to take any note of, but it is still there.

I am going to have to disagree here. A given Lisp will require a Bounded-Tape Turing Machine of tape size N and head state count M and symbol table Q. If the ARM processor running Windows NT can supply that, Lisp is possible. If a x86 running Unix can supply that, Lisp is possible. If Lisp behaves differently from the mathematical ideal on any machine, that means the machine is incapable of supplying said turing machine.

"If the Lisp is untrue to the Specification, that is a fact about the Implementation, not the Mathematics behind it."

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