turing tar-pit

2 definitions found

turing tar-pit - Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (26 May 2007) :

  Turing tar-pit
  
     A place where anything is possible but nothing of interest is
     practical.  Alan M. Turing helped lay the foundations of
     computer science by showing that all machines and languages
     capable of expressing a certain very primitive set of
     operations are logically equivalent in the kinds of
     computations they can carry out, and in principle have
     capabilities that differ only in speed from those of the most
     powerful and elegantly designed computers.  However, no
     machine or language exactly matching Turing's primitive set
     has ever been built (other than possibly as a classroom
     exercise), because it would be horribly slow and far too
     painful to use.
  
     A "Turing tar-pit" is any computer language or other tool that
     shares this property.  That is, it's theoretically universal
     but in practice, the harder you struggle to get any real work
     done, the deeper its inadequacies suck you in.  Compare
     bondage-and-discipline language.
  
     A tar pit is a geological occurence where subterranean tar
     leaks to the surface, creating a large puddle (or pit) of tar.
     Animals wandering or falling in get stuck, being unable to
     extricate themselves from the tar.  La Brea, California, has a
     museum built around the fossilized remains of mammals and
     birds found in such a tar pit.
  
     [Jargon File]
  
     (1998-06-27)
  

turing tar-pit - Jargon File (4.4.4, 14 Aug 2003) :

  Turing tar-pit
   n.
  
     1. A place where anything is possible but nothing of interest is
     practical. Alan Turing helped lay the foundations of computer science
     by showing that all machines and languages capable of expressing a
     certain very primitive set of operations are logically equivalent in
     the kinds of computations they can carry out, and in principle have
     capabilities that differ only in speed from those of the most
  powerful
     and elegantly designed computers. However, no machine or language
     exactly matching Turing's primitive set has ever been built (other
     than possibly as a classroom exercise), because it would be horribly
     slow and far too painful to use. A Turing tar-pit is any computer
     language or other tool that shares this property. That is, it's
     theoretically universal -- but in practice, the harder you struggle
  to
     get any real work done, the deeper its inadequacies suck you in.
     Compare bondage-and-discipline language.
  
     2. The perennial holy wars over whether language A or B is the
  "most
     powerful".