Halting problem (nonfiction)
In computability theory, the halting problem is the problem of determining, from a description of an arbitrary computer program and an input, whether the program will finish running or continue to run forever. See Computation (nonfiction).
Alan Turing proved in 1936 that a general algorithm to solve the halting problem for all possible program-input pairs cannot exist.
A key part of the proof was a mathematical definition of a computer and program, which became known as a Turing machine; the halting problem is undecidable over Turing machines.
It is one of the first examples of a decision problem.
In the News
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Fiction cross-reference
Nonfiction cross-reference
- Halting problem @ Wikipedia