On Nov 6, 2006, at 11:34 AM, Daniel C. wrote:
I do concede that it's not a theoretical limitation at all. I'll have
to find the thing I read (if I can) and link y'all to it when I get
home from work.
Not only is it not a theoretical limitation, but it's not a practical
one either. You can, in theory, create a string of parentheses too
big to match for any given computer's internal storage space. Such
strings are not at all likely to show up in the real world, though,
and even if they did, it's possible to work around them by augmenting
the computer with additional storage space.
In terms of computational complexity, matching strings of parentheses
is extremely easy, but you were attempting to make it look like some
unsolvable problem. I would be interested in seeing whatever article
prompted you to make your original assertion, because I can't
currently see how the point you were trying to make is relevant at
all, except perhaps to keep programmers honest with the fact that
their computers aren't real Turing machines because they have non-
infinite memories.
--Levi
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