Rice's Theorem (Paperback)

High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! In computability theory, Rice's theorem states that, for any non-trivial property of partial functions, there is no general and effective method to decide whether an algorithm computes a partial function with that property. Here, a property of partial functions is called trivial if it holds for all partial computable functions or for none, and an effective decision method is called general if it decides correctly for every algorithm. The theorem is named after Henry Gordon Rice, and is also known as the Rice-Myhill-Shapiro theorem after Rice, John Myhill, and Norman Shapiro.