Path: ...!eternal-september.org!feeder3.eternal-september.org!news.eternal-september.org!.POSTED!not-for-mail From: David Brown Newsgroups: comp.lang.c++,comp.lang.c Subject: Re: Can you see that D correctly simulated by H remains stuck in recursive simulation? Date: Fri, 24 May 2024 15:37:29 +0200 Organization: A noiseless patient Spider Lines: 73 Message-ID: References: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit Injection-Date: Fri, 24 May 2024 15:37:30 +0200 (CEST) Injection-Info: dont-email.me; posting-host="aa31083d92649562fe347cd52a2a5ec5"; logging-data="2474890"; mail-complaints-to="abuse@eternal-september.org"; posting-account="U2FsdGVkX18wTwwwNm32xCZzDM2sMPObl79Cit3PLlY=" User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux x86_64; rv:102.0) Gecko/20100101 Thunderbird/102.11.0 Cancel-Lock: sha1:lrwPdeTasO9OTLnYN10ARKTKL/s= In-Reply-To: Content-Language: en-GB Bytes: 3790 On 24/05/2024 15:08, olcott wrote: > On 5/24/2024 7:10 AM, Richard Harnden wrote: >> On 23/05/2024 17:52, olcott wrote: >>> typedef int (*ptr)();  // ptr is pointer to int function in C >>> 00       int H(ptr p, ptr i); >>> 01       int D(ptr p) >>> 02       { >>> 03         int Halt_Status = H(p, p); >>> 04         if (Halt_Status) >>> 05           HERE: goto HERE; >>> 06         return Halt_Status; >>> 07       } >>> 08 >>> 09       int main() >>> 10       { >>> 11         H(D,D); >>> 12         return 0; >>> 13       } >>> >>> The above template refers to an infinite set of H/D pairs where D is >>> correctly simulated by pure function H. This was done because many >>> reviewers used the shell game ploy to endlessly switch which H/D was >>> being referred to. >>> >>> *Correct Simulation Defined* >>> This is provided because every reviewer had a different notion of >>> correct simulation that diverges from this notion. >>> >>> In the above case a simulator is an x86 emulator that correctly emulates >>> at least one of the x86 instructions of D in the order specified by the >>> x86 instructions of D. >>> >>> This may include correctly emulating the x86 instructions of H in the >>> order specified by the x86 instructions of H thus calling H(D,D) in >>> recursive simulation. >>> >>> *Execution Trace* >>> Line 11: main() invokes H(D,D); H(D,D) simulates lines 01, 02, and 03 of >>> D. This invokes H(D,D) again to repeat the process in endless recursive >>> simulation. >> >> >> So, you have: main -> H -> D -> H -> D -> ... -> H -> D until you run >> out of stack? >> >> No return statement is ever reached. >> Line 3 never completes. >> Halt_Status at line 3 never gets a value. >> >> >> >> > Thanks. > > Proving that D correctly simulated by H never reaches its final > state at line 06 and halts. No, it does not. As Richard says, you have main -> H -> D -> H -> ... For any finite system, you will run out of stack space. This is undefined behaviour in C. /Anything/ can happen - including halting, returning a halt status of 1, or a halt status of 0, or a not halting, or printing out the works of Shakespeare. Or it could cause the program to jump directly to line 6. Once you hit undefined behaviour, you cannot prove /anything/. > Thus proving that the halting problem's > counter-example input D would be correctly determined to be non-halting > by its simulating termination analyzer H. >