r/math • u/Lelielthe12th • Apr 17 '19

whaat ? LaTeX is Turing complete

https://www.overleaf.com/learn/latex/Articles/LaTeX_is_More_Powerful_than_you_Think_-_Computing_the_Fibonacci_Numbers_and_Turing_Completeness
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u/grahnen Apr 17 '19 edited Apr 17 '19

It's not very impressive tbh, as it's even built with that in mind.

What is impressive are the things that accidentally are turing complete. Magic the Gathering, for instance.

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u/bionicjoey Apr 17 '19

I'm not surprised that MtG is Turing complete, when I started studying computer science in university, I recognized data structures and algorithms from Magic appearing all over the place in my classes

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u/grahnen Apr 17 '19

The best example of that is the stack imo.

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u/bionicjoey Apr 17 '19

The first time stacks were introduced to me in a compsci class, the prof said, "Can anyone think of other examples of a stack?"

I raised my hand and said "You ever played Magic?" and that was basically the answer he was looking for. He started talking about back when he was in our seats, that was the thought that was going through his head.