On May 17, 2004, at 10:10 AM, Eliot Moss wrote:
>>>>>> "Bill" == Bill Pugh <pugh@cs.umd.edu> writes:
>
> Bill> OK, so names like spin, or busyWait aren't good names
> because they are
> Bill> behaviors that real programs do (e.g., busyWait on a
> volatile variable).
>
> Bill> Names like think, pause, stutter, and so on because they
> don't reflect
> Bill> the fact that the program will perform an infinite sequence
> of these
> Bill> actions.
>
> Bill> Some of the other names are just too cute.
>
> Bill> How about infiniteLoop action?
>
> Bill> Alternatively, blackHole?
>
> Maybe this is not really an issue, but (except in certain formal
> semantics)
> it troubles me to think of this infinitely busy behavior as a _single
> action_. I think it is quite different from the other actions one
> considers
> in the model, which (when they occur) consume finite (though not
> specifically bounded) time (or perhaps can be viewed as occurring in an
> instant). Jut expressing some uneasiness. It seems to be to be infinite
> _repetition_ of a non-interacting (silent) action ...
>
> Eliot
An infiniteLoop action consumes finite time and represents only a
single iteration of an infinite loop.
But any infiniteLoop action is followed by an infinite sequence of
infiniteLoop actions.
Bill
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