Turing tar-pit

Turing tar-pit
 n.

   1. A place where anything is possible but nothing of interest is
   practical. Alan Turing helped lay the foundations of computer science
   by showing that all machines and languages capable of expressing a
   certain very primitive set of operations are logically equivalent in
   the kinds of computations they can carry out, and in principle have
   capabilities that differ only in speed from those of the most powerful
   and elegantly designed computers. However, no machine or language
   exactly matching Turing's primitive set has ever been built (other
   than possibly as a classroom exercise), because it would be horribly
   slow and far too painful to use. A Turing tar-pit is any computer
   language or other tool that shares this property. That is, it's
   theoretically universal -- but in practice, the harder you struggle to
   get any real work done, the deeper its inadequacies suck you in.
   Compare {bondage-and-discipline language}.

   2. The perennial {holy wars} over whether language A or B is the "most
   powerful".
    

Turing tar-pit

   A place where anything is possible but nothing of interest is
   practical.  {Alan M. Turing} helped lay the foundations of
   computer science by showing that all machines and languages
   capable of expressing a certain very primitive set of
   operations are logically equivalent in the kinds of
   computations they can carry out, and in principle have
   capabilities that differ only in speed from those of the most
   powerful and elegantly designed computers.  However, no
   machine or language exactly matching Turing's primitive set
   has ever been built (other than possibly as a classroom
   exercise), because it would be horribly slow and far too
   painful to use.

   A "Turing tar-pit" is any computer language or other tool that
   shares this property.  That is, it's theoretically universal
   but in practice, the harder you struggle to get any real work
   done, the deeper its inadequacies suck you in.  Compare
   {bondage-and-discipline language}.

   A tar pit is a geological occurence where subterranean tar
   leaks to the surface, creating a large puddle (or pit) of tar.
   Animals wandering or falling in get stuck, being unable to
   extricate themselves from the tar.  La Brea, California, has a
   museum built around the fossilized remains of mammals and
   birds found in such a tar pit.

   [{Jargon File}]

   (1998-06-27)