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  1. My definition of an algorithm is a finite sequence of operations provided by an abstract machine, where the operations are executed one after another in the order specified by the sequence.
  2. Different machines may provide different sets of operations, so the definition of an algorithm depends on the abstract machine and can be different on different abstract machines.

Thanks.

Raphael
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Tim
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2 Answers2

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While very vague, I don't see anything inherently wrong with your "definition", nor do I know strictly better ones.

See also here.

Community
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Raphael
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One of my professors gave us this definition of algorithms when he was about to introduce Turing Machines:

An algorithm is a finite sequence of instructions which always terminates and gives us a result.

Therefore an algorithm requires termination as well as the production of a result, otherwise it is nothing more than a procedure which is a sequence of operations/instructions.

A procedure may be effectively calculable by pen/paper method, but an algorithm is effectively computable by a Turing machine.

Sagnik
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