Logo Questions Linux Laravel Mysql Ubuntu Git Menu
 

Is there a term for a finite state machine that is guaranteed to halt?

I was having a discussion earlier about a state machine, and there was a question as to whether it might not halt on some input. It seems like a property of state machines that is important and frequently mentioned, but I can't for the life of me figure out what the name of that property is. Is there such a term? Is it "haltable", "not-infinitely-loopy", or something else?

like image 957
Brandon Yarbrough Avatar asked Jun 24 '10 19:06

Brandon Yarbrough


1 Answers

A machine that always halts is called a decider.

A decider need only be a machine that halts on all inputs. For example, all DFAs are deciders, as are DPDAs.

like image 147
Welbog Avatar answered Nov 23 '22 07:11

Welbog