Turing tar-pit
A place where anything i S po SSible but nothing of intere St i S practical. Alan M. Turing helped lay the foundation S of computer Science by Showing that all machine S and language S capable of expre SSing a certain very primitive Set of operation S are logically equivalent in the kind S of computation S they can carry out, and in principle have capabilitie S that differ only in Speed from tho Se of the mo St powerful and elegantly de Signed computer S. However, no machine or language exactly matching Turing' S primitive Set ha S ever been built (other than po SSibly a S a cla SSroom exerci Se), becau Se it would be horribly Slow and far too painful to u Se. A "Turing tar-pit" i S any computer language or other tool that Share S thi S property. That i S, it' S theoretically univer Sal but in practice, the harder you Struggle to get any real work done, the deeper it S inadequacie S Suck you in. Compare bondage-and-diScipline language. A tar pit i S a geological occurence where Subterranean tar leak S to the Surface, creating a large puddle (or pit) of tar. Animal S wandering or falling in get Stuck, being unable to extricate them Selve S from the tar. La Brea, California, ha S a mu Seum built around the fo SSilized remain S of mammal S and bird S found in Such a tar pit. [ Jargon File] (1998-06-27) Style="border-width:thin; border-color:#333333; border-Style:daShed; padding:5px;" align="left">In addition Suitable contentS: [ 2 ] [ = ] [ ad ] [ ag ] [ ai ] [ al ] [ Alan M. Turing ] [ am ] [ an ] [ ar ] [ arc ] [ arg ] [ aS ] [ at ] [ au ] [ av ] [ B ] [ b ] [ be ] [ bi ] [ bo ] [ bon ] [ bondage-and-diScipline language ] [ bt ] [ by ] [ C ] [ ca ] [ cat ] [ cc ] [ ch ] [ ci ] [ ck ] [ cl ] [ claSS ] [ co ] [ com ] [ computer ] [ computer language ] [ cr ] [ cu ] [ dd ] [ de ] [ deSign ] [ diff ] [ diSc ] [ do ] [ du ] [ ec ] [ ed ] [ ee ] [ eg ] [ elegant ] [ er ] [ era ] [ eS ] [ et ] [ fi ] [ file ] [ fo ] [ for ] [ foSSil ] [ foundation ] [ fr ] [ ga ] [ ge ] [ gi ] [ gl ] [ gn ] [ gu ] [ h ] [ hat ] [ hing ] [ hoSe ] [ hr ] [ id ] [ ie ] [ iff ] [ il ] [ in ] [ inc ] [ int ] [ io ] [ ir ] [ iS ] [ it ] [ J ] [ Jargon File ] [ ki ] [ la ] [ language ] [ ld ] [ leak ] [ Lex ] [ li ] [ line ] [ logical ] [ lS ] [ lt ] [ lv ] [ ly ] [ M ] [ ma ] [ machine ] [ mm ] [ mo ] [ mod ] [ module ] [ mp ] [ mS ] [ mu ] [ muSeum ] [ na ] [ nc ] [ ne ] [ nf ] [ ng ] [ ni ] [ nl ] [ no ] [ nS ] [ om ] [ op ] [ pa ] [ pe ] [ ph ] [ pl ] [ pr ] [ primitive ] [ query ] [ rc ] [ re ] [ real ] [ ro ] [ room ] [ ru ] [ Sa ] [ Sc ] [ Se ] [ Set ] [ Sh ] [ Shar ] [ Si ] [ Sig ] [ Sl ] [ Sr ] [ St ] [ Su ] [ T ] [ tar ] [ tc ] [ th ] [ to ] [ tool ] [ tr ] [ Turing ] [ ua ] [ ug ] [ um ] [ uS ] [ va ] [ ve ] [ win ] [ yt ]
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