It actually can have some benefits -- a language without any unbounded loops or recursion isn't Turing-complete, but you do get a static guarantee of termination. NASA, for example, writes much of their C code only with bounded recursion. So they can't compute some things, but they can be sure that the Mars lander never gets stuck in an infinite loop.
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> Turing-completeness, of course.
Lots of useful programs can be written without turing completeness. It can be useful, but only for a limited problem domain.
It actually can have some benefits -- a language without any unbounded loops or recursion isn't Turing-complete, but you do get a static guarantee of termination. NASA, for example, writes much of their C code only with bounded recursion. So they can't compute some things, but they can be sure that the Mars lander never gets stuck in an infinite loop.
have you got any sources telling about this? I can't seem to find any. Would be a nice read
Here's the official NASA JPL C coding standard
http://lars-lab.jpl.nasa.gov/JPL_Coding_Standard_C.pdf
Page 10 describes loop bounds and recursion limitations.
"Lots of useful programs can be written without turing completeness."
Including Bitcoin transactions - I learned this from elsewhere on HN today.
FYI: https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Script
Fascinating. What is this?
I saw a reference to Bitcoin transactions embedding executable content in another thread and was slightly taken aback:
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5496740