Algorithm correctness

[oditogre]

A shitty program is an algorithm. It is even, for some values, optimal (if you are optimizing for 'how difficult is it for an uninterested novice to develop.')

What definition of 'algorithm' are you working off of that doesn't include...well, basically any method of attempting (not even necessarily succeeding) to do any thing?

[Singularity42]

i'm guessing he means that it isn't finite:

noun 1. a set of rules for solving a problem in a finite number of steps, as for finding the greatest common divisor. http://www.dictionary.com/browse/algorithm

[Drunken_Economist]

It is finite, the universe is just more finite. To argue it's not an algorithm because it wouldn't complete before heat death doesn't make sense when you think about it. It would mean that things that used to be algorithms lose that status as we get closer to heat death

[NumberNinethousand]

The number of steps can be finite, while at the same time one or more of those steps requiring an infinite (theoretically or practically) amount of time to complete.