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Magic the Gathering is Turing complete. That doesn't mean you should refer to it as a programming language.
by stepanhruda 11y ago
Magic the Gathering is Turing complete. That doesn't mean you should refer to it as a programming language.
- _Codemonkeyism 11y agoAny link on how Magic the Gathering is Turing complete? The only thing I could find is how to represent a Turing machine with Magic cards.
- sika_grr 11y agohttp://www.toothycat.net/~hologram/Turing/HowItWorks.html http://www.toothycat.net/~hologram/Turing/HowItWorks.html
- Retric 11y agoThat's not a valid game state. It's like saying chess is Touring complete when played on an infinite board.
- palunon 11y agoBy this argument, x84_64 assembly isn't Turing complete because it needs finite memory... Which is technically correct, just not very useful.
- DonHopkins 11y agoMy Philosophy of Computer Science professor argued that you could prove anything was Turing complete, by suitably "gerrymandering the inputs" of your definition. What that actually means, I'm not sure. I know how gerrymandered congress is, and they couldn't possibly get enough work done to be Turing complete.
- _Codemonkeyism 11y agoThat's what I've ment, it's not 'Magic the Game' but inventing rules [1] for magic card handling that represents a Turing machine. [1] "A Rotlung Reanimator makes a messenger token for Alex."
- gonvaled 11y agoSure you do not need to refer to it as a programming language. But: 1) Doing so is not technically wrong 2) For a certain (non-technical) audience, "programming language" is something that "tells the computer to do things" So, it is both correct and a helpful description for the target audience. Nitpicking is out of order here.
- DonHopkins 11y agoOr pivot from exchanging Magic the Gathering Cards online into banking Bitcoins online.