Are there a finite number of questions that can be asked regarding a specific language (and or topic), for example - for T-SQL given that there are only so many commands, can there be a limited number of non-repetitive questions? and if so can you use that to determine sizing for a site like stackoverflow and to determine the probability of a new question being a repeat of a prior one? If there is a finite number, how would you determine/calculate it: for instance, T-SQL has x number of commands, each one can have a set of relevant questions (syntax, example of use, etc.) - so could the # of questions = x times potential questions time some relevant variation? or something like that?
+4
A:
No, since, theoretically, programs can be of infinite length, and this site is not just about language commands, but programs developed with those languages.
RedFilter
2009-06-17 22:55:09
In theory they could be, but in reality there's some limitation - either way the length of the program is not a direct reflection of the size of the command set - the commands and patterns will repeat throughout the code.
meade
2009-06-18 02:14:38
+3
A:
I'm pretty sure Turing says no, and if you don't believe him them Gödel might have something to say about it.
Alex Brown
2009-06-17 22:56:00
And Bertrand Russel too, if you're going to ask questions about questions.
ChrisW
2009-06-17 23:04:19
Gödel spoke of completeness - which would probably hold that no language or theory can be proved complete (I think that's how it relates) - but does not mean that the language is not finite.
meade
2009-06-18 02:18:41
+2
A:
A stack overflow question is expressed as a finite length sequence of bytes. One could in principle consider the question body in terms of an integer, expressed lowest digit first, in base 256 (or larger, if you wish to think about it as unicode). This is a bijection between questions and whole numbers. Therefore the set of all stack overflow questions has a countably infinite cardinality (How do i typeset \aleph_0 in SO?).
TokenMacGuy
2009-06-17 23:17:26
But not every conceivable question, as you define it, can be understood or belongs on Stackoverflow. You have not yet proven that the set of questions that is appropriate for this site is also countably infinite.
molf
2009-06-17 23:32:38