Top "Computability" questions

What's a Turing machine?

What is a Turing machine and why do people keep mentioning it? My IBM PC is all I need to …

computer-science theory turing-machines computability
An infinite language can't be regular? What is a finite language?

I read this in a book on computability: (Kleene's Theorem) A language is regular if and only if it can …

regular-language finite-automata formal-languages computability kleene-star
Why can Conway’s Game of Life be classified as a universal machine?

I was recently reading about artificial life and came across the statement, "Conway’s Game of Life demonstrates enough complexity …

theory turing-complete computability
What is the "trick" to writing a Quine?

I read Ken Thompson's classic paper Reflections on Trusting Trust in which he prompts users to write a Quine as …

quine computability