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My favorite model of computation is ...

by AppleFritter (Vicar)
on May 02, 2017 at 14:26 UTC ( [id://1189324]=poll: print w/replies, xml ) Need Help??

Vote on this poll

Turing machines
[bar] 21/10%
λ-calculus
[bar] 20/10%
μ-recursive functions
[bar] 3/1%
Formal grammars
[bar] 9/4%
Markov chains
[bar] 15/7%
Petri nets
[bar] 3/1%
Conway's Game of Life
[bar] 20/10%
Perl regular expressions
[bar] 38/18%
My Magic 8-Ball
[bar] 18/9%
Actual computers
[bar] 62/30%
209 total votes
Replies are listed 'Best First'.
Re: My favorite model of computation is ...
by zentara (Archbishop) on May 02, 2017 at 18:00 UTC
      10 fingers and 10 toes

      Computing in that model, please don't show me 132. Thanks. ;-)

      perl -le'print map{pack c,($-++?1:13)+ord}split//,ESEL'
        Yes, I think, 4 and 132 are the main reasons why we don't count binary with our fingers :-) (and 136, of course)

      A simple technique I picked up somewhere permits counting to 99 on the hands -- left hand is the tens digit, right hand is the units digit, and the thumb counts for 5 fingers.

        This is my system too. It also works very well for tallying two different counts that occur simultaneously, if they're in the range of 0-9.

        Or in a pinch, -9-+9 or 0-19, using memory (short term) or hand inversion (long terms storage) for the extra bit.

      > 10 fingers and 10 toes? :-)

      While others pointed to hexagesimal my first idea was vigesimal, a system which left traces in many European languages.

      (To those who complain now French counting be to complicated, try Danish ... ;)

      Cheers Rolf
      (addicted to the Perl Programming Language and ☆☆☆☆ :)
      Je suis Charlie!

        While others pointed to hexagesimal my first idea was vigesimal

        Pfft. What a waste of good knuckles and fingers. Down with vigesimal. Long live hexagesimal!

      Let's see, the hand can count to 12, making 60 with both hands. Or is that 144? Adding both feet, would be 1500, or 3600. Or, perhaps for the inhumanly dexterous, 20,736.

        Let's see, the hand can count to 12

        Yeah. Decimal => 5, Sexagesimal => 12, Binary => 31; five bits. 4 ^ 128...

        perl -le'print map{pack c,($-++?1:13)+ord}split//,ESEL'
        Wow, I learn something new everyday. I never even thought about Sexagesimal before. :-)

        I'm not really a human, but I play one on earth. ..... an animated JAPH
Re: My favorite model of computation is ...
by jmlynesjr (Deacon) on May 02, 2017 at 20:03 UTC

    State Machines.

    I'm an old controls guy.

    James

    There's never enough time to do it right, but always enough time to do it over...

Re: My favorite model of computation is ...
by chacham (Prior) on May 02, 2017 at 20:36 UTC

    I worked for a company where some people had done some computations (for plants and lines) in their heads or with notebooks or whatever for decades. Noone else knew how to do what they did, so the company decided to write a program to do it to ensure the future.

    These guys told the programmers what they did, and then did not like the program. Indeed, they often decided what they wanted to see, and then put the numbers into the program to get the result they wanted, even though the numbers they put in were bogus and were only there to contrive the results they wanted to see.

    So, the answer to favorite method of computation is simply, what i'm used to.

      This sounds like the much(over) cited Expert System example of Campbell Soup Company mind melding with the really old guy that they flew all over the US fixing their soup cookers. They were terrified that he would retire or fall out.

      <warstory>Took a trip to Alabama years ago to see a Unisys factory control system. Roll steel came in one end of the plant and steel buildings went out the other. Their major production problem was that the heat from the continous welding of the web on the I-beams tended to warp the beam. They had their own old guy who would walk the beam with a torch and a bucket of water. This "artist" would heat and cool spots on the beam and pull the warping out! He was training he son to take over from him.</warstory>

      James

      There's never enough time to do it right, but always enough time to do it over...

Re: My favorite model of computation is ...
by hdb (Monsignor) on May 03, 2017 at 12:55 UTC

    Otherwise, I am a great fan of reverse polish notation. My favorite calculator is the HP12C.

      One of my old favorites. XKCD: Reverse Polish Notati... er, Sausage

      And the mouse hangover tool tip if you didn't look, "It looks good, but it needs more postfixins." :-)

      Just another Perl hooker - Working on the corner... corner conditions that is.

      Mine was the  HP41C  HP41CV HP41CX.

Re: My favorite model of computation is ...
by GotToBTru (Prior) on May 08, 2017 at 20:12 UTC

    Minecraft.

    But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Romans 5:8 (NASB)

Re: My favorite model of computation is ...
by perldigious (Priest) on May 02, 2017 at 19:13 UTC

    Well, if you must know, my personal favorite "Model of Computation" is Hedy Lamarr.

    If I had been alive in her day, I'd have loved to get my hands on those curves. :-)

    Just another Perl hooker - Working on the corner... corner conditions that is.
Re: My favorite model of computation is ...
by shmem (Chancellor) on May 02, 2017 at 20:55 UTC

    Wait, what? No ANN option? This is my favourite model which I layer over my natural neural network to get the job done. After computing, I write the stuff down in perl. The rest is done by The Machine.

    perl -le'print map{pack c,($-++?1:13)+ord}split//,ESEL'

      I do apologize for missing that one -- and rule 110, which QM mentions below and which came to my mind just today when I thought of Conway Life (and then of this poll) again.

      Others are missing, too, notably boolean logic circuits, various kinds of automata, Boltzmann machines, Conway's FRACTRAN (yes, that's the same Conway), and many more. Even diophantine equations can be coaxed to yield a model of computation.

      Mea culpa, fellow monks! Accept my apologies, after all I'm just a silly pony.

Re: My favorite model of computation is ...
by QM (Parson) on May 03, 2017 at 17:26 UTC
    I voted for Conway, though Rule_110 is more mind-numbing.

    -QM
    --
    Quantum Mechanics: The dreams stuff is made of

Re: My favorite model of computation is ...
by AppleFritter (Vicar) on May 08, 2017 at 15:18 UTC
    And of course there's one I definitely wanted to include but then forgot about completely: C++ templates (which can be shown to be Turing complete).
Re: My favorite model of computation is ...
by wjw (Priest) on May 19, 2017 at 04:24 UTC

    Actually, recently I relly like working with Arduino and RPI....

    ...the majority is always wrong, and always the last to know about it...

    A solution is nothing more than a clearly stated problem...

Re: My favorite model of computation is ...
by LanX (Saint) on May 07, 2017 at 21:37 UTC
Re: My favorite model of computation is ...
by eighty-one (Curate) on May 11, 2017 at 16:26 UTC
Re: My favorite model of computation is ...
by Anonymous Monk on May 25, 2017 at 01:39 UTC
    42. You don't need to compute if you already have the answer! Alternatively: Deep Thought can probably compute it for you.

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