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In fact, I once implemented a Turing machine in production code because it was the correct and cost-effective solution to the requirements.

Really? Please explain where you got the infinitely long tape, and how your software made markings on it. If you didn't do that, then you didn't make Turing's machine; and any computing device with an infinite datastore that we can concieve of is computationally equivalent to a Turing machine.

Turing machines are just a theoretical device for discussions of computational equivalence; you can't "implement" one in any sense of the word. You can create a state machine with an associated finite datastore, but we tend to call those devices "computers"; the hardware already does that for us.

There's no sense of the word in which I can find it meaningful to claim one has "implemented" a Turing machine; it's a thought experiment, not a device you can actually build. --
Ytrew

In reply to Re^4: Worst blog post ever on teaching programming by Anonymous Monk
in thread Problematic post on teaching programming by Scott7477

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