Non Deterministic

last modified: November 22, 2014

A system is non-deterministic if its output cannot be predicted from its input.

Several papers on ConcurrentConstraintProgramming distinguish between 'indeterminism' (committed choice, RaceCondition, etc.) and 'non-determinism' (backtracking, all paths simultaneously, etc.). This attempt to avoid confusion between different uses of 'non-determinism' respects prior literature regarding NonDeterministicTuringMachine and Non-deterministic FiniteAutomata.

It may be worth encouraging use of 'indeterminism' for cases where 'output cannot be predicted from locally controlled input'.


See UsefulnessOfNonDeterminism, NonDeterministicTuringMachine


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