Re: Perl Quiz of the Week #24 (Turing Machine simulation)

John J. Trammell wrote:
> On Wed, Sep 15, 2004 at 11:53:21AM -0400, colin.rafferty-/PgpppG8B+R7qynMiXIxWgC/[email protected] wrote:
>> John J. Trammell wrote:
>>> On Wed, Sep 15, 2004 at 10:41:14AM -0400, colin.rafferty-/PgpppG8B+R7qynMiXIxWgC/[email protected] wrote:
>>>> I would change the specification of the program to allow for a third
>>>> argument which is the head's initial location on the tape.  

>>> I'd say this is a perfect example of a customization that a user may
>>> wish to apply, but this should be implemented via command-line
>>> options,

>> I disagree.  I think that without it, you cannot specify any finite
>> initial state of a turing machine.

> Since my proposal is equivalent to yours, differing only in the manner
> in which the starting position is communicated to the program, I fail to
> understand how this argument justifies your disagreement.

I had thought that it would need to be a required optional argument as
opposed to a non-required optional argument.  As such, it made more
sense as just an ordered argument rather.

However, in the subsequent messages, Ronald J Kimball pointed out how
I was wrong, and you can specify any initial state even without that
argument, and I agreed with him, and (implicitly) withdrew my
objection.

-- 

Colin