Computers Can’t Debug
There are some things computers
cannot do … and we can prove it!
No computer program can tell, give another
program P, if P loops forever … halting prob
If possible, it would be handy for debugging
In fact, it seems possible … look closely at the
program, check the for-statements (and
other looping structures we didn’t learn)
Suppose Loop_Check (P, Q) tests pgm P on
input Q, answering “yes/no” to loops forever