> I think you could make the case that PROLOG, when it's behaving > nondeterministically, is *perhaps* not doing what the programmer tells > it to.
MMf. The argument on whether data-driven languages like Prolog or Standard ML are deterministic or not is a very fine line (and has nothing to do with Linux, so I won't go into it here). Since such languages *are* still rule-evaluation based, barring logical contradictions, they do have a predictable end state, thus at some frame of reference, the "answer" is a reflection of the logic the programmer coded. If there is not a deterministic end state, then you have a positive feedback loop and combinatorial explosion. Here be dragons indeed. > Oh, and there's Quantum INTERCAL--which, alas, lived on the late, > lamented assurdo.com--which might, or might not, have been doing what > you told it to do. It's not clear that Intercal ever did *anything* useful, so I'll concede that one. -- db
