On 7/9/07, Conor McBride
Hi all
On 9 Jul 2007, at 06:42, Thomas Conway wrote:
I don't know if you saw the following linked off /.
[..]
The basic claim appears to be that discrete mathematics is a bad foundation for computer science. I suspect the subscribers to this list would beg to disagree.
It's true that some systems are better characterised as corecursive "coprograms", rather than as recursive "programs". This is not a popular or well-understood distinction. In my career as an advocate for total programming (in some carefully delineated fragment of a language) I have many times been gotcha'ed thus: "but an operating system is a program which isn't supposed to terminate". No, an operating system is supposed to remain responsive. And that's what total coprograms do.
I'm sorry, but can you expand a little further on this? I guess I don't understand how a corecursion => responsive to input but not terminating. Where does the idea of waiting for input fit into corecursion?