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Why focus on formal language in theory of computation? Most programs do more than merely accept or reject an input (lemy.lol)

submitted 7 months ago by matcha_addict@lemy.lol to c/programming@programming.dev

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While reading Sipser's book on theory of computation, it relies heavily on the concept of formal language, and machines that merely accept or reject an input.

But most useful programs we deal with do more than merely verify an input. They compute something. We may compute a solution for an equation instead of merely verify it. We may sum a list of numbers, or calculate some function on it.

Maybe "most" is an exaggeration since I can't prove it. But still, it begs the question. Why not deal with machines than do more than merely verify?

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[–] matcha_addict@lemy.lol 4 points 7 months ago

I suppose you're right. But I thought the reason we are using conceptual models of computation is to not concern ourselves with the implementation details of the physical world and real computers. It's why we have an infinite tape, for example.

Representing a "sum a list of numbers" problem in terms of binary logic gates would be the opposite of that. We're complicating the problem. Turing machines as I've seen them are not that low level. Would binary addition be the sensible way to sum a list of numbers in a turing machine?

Your answer is still convincing though... I suppose we can represent functions as series of verifiers. But my only remaining point of confusion is... Is that really the better way?