Joe Wreschnig wrote: [snip] > > > > Program: Software which is intended for execution on an actually > > > > existing interpreter. > > > > > > > > Data: Software which is not ~. [snip] > > > Your next task is to define > > > the term 'execute'. :) > > > > I use for it as well the establishend meaning in CS. > > The best definition of 'execute' in computer science is "can be decided > by some Turing machine". By a _specific_ Turing machine, that is. > Any stream of bits can be not only be decided > by a Turing machine, but can also be a Turing machine itself. It just > depends on what encodings you pick (and, you can write programs to > automatically generate appropriate encodings...) That's why I wrote "actually existing interpreter". You can't decide if some bit stream is an executable without defining the execution environment. > I think, anyone who has studied CS (more specifically, the theory of > computation) will eventually come to the conclusion that all bit streams > are software. Yes, this is implicit in my definition attempt above. Thiemo
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