Comment by lmm
2 years ago
Do you think "state machines" should be called "data machines"? Why or why not?
IMO "state" is a better fit for the concept that this is getting at. The point is to stop the program getting into an invalid state, not to stop the program operating on invalid data, because a program might need to process data that's invalid in some sense, and because the program state is something a bit more active than "data" (e.g. having the right data at the wrong stage of execution is also an invalid state, even though it isn't exactly "invalid data").
Very insightful (you and your siblings), thank you all. I think I have a fundamental misunderstanding of what a state is, maybe because I mostly practice responding to external state changes? I don't know, I'll think on that. Thank you again.