News for hackers. Stuff that matters.
Re:HTML + CSS3 is Turing complete by CJefferson on Tuesday March 08, 2011 @09:53AM (#2301025)
I'd like a more complete description of this.

My first thought is "no it's not", because you are encoding a fixed-sized grid in the HTML, which is then the total extent of the program. While no real machine has an "infinite tape", I think requiring the tape be embedded in the program itself is strengthing things a little far.

Re:HTML + CSS3 is Turing complete by samdk on Tuesday March 08, 2011 @10:27AM (#2301182)
Why is it stretching things a little far? Non-infinite tape is, as you noted, a limit on everything we consider turing complete: this is just running at a much higher level of abstraction than your computer. You could (if you were so inclined) create a physical machine with a grid of memory that behaved according to rules defined by CSS selectors. Just because this doesn't do direct memory access and behave like the computer or a traditional TM doesn't make it not a TM. (Or, at least, any less of a TM than the computer you're using.)
Re:HTML + CSS3 is Turing complete by kenjackson on Tuesday March 08, 2011 @11:12AM (#2301374)
The real question is if this can deal with arbitrary amounts of finite memory. That is, could I express an instance of a program that requires a trillion "units" of memory w/o constructing a new "machine" that explicitly laid it out?
Re:HTML + CSS3 is Turing complete by elitheeli on Tuesday March 08, 2011 @10:23AM (#2301162)
Is my MacBook Pro any more Turing complete? All of the memory came with it. There's no way to expand the memory as it's running.
Re:HTML + CSS3 is Turing complete by metageek on Tuesday March 08, 2011 @10:24AM (#2301169)
But the HTML is not the program; it's the machine that runs the program. In that view, the tape being finite is just like the tape (RAM, disk, mercury delay lines) of a physical machine being finite.