Does this problem have more than what it seems to me ?

Attachment 11820
It seems, to me that the program/function always terminates.
(Though it doesn't produce the intended result (the function is named 'mu' which I guess, is for multiplication) for a < 0).
And the 'Q' required is just the Loop Invariant (right?), which I think is "y=i*b".

Or am I missing something large, considering that this is for a post grad paper and I've just begun my college education(two weeks, to be exact).

(The whole question paper is here)

I have a hunch that condition P is about finding/avoiding boundary conditions to get an infinite loop, but that is most likely wrong.
If the loop invariant were say

Quote:

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i <= a

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instead of

Quote:

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i < a

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, then we have an infinite loop at

Quote:

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mu(INT_MAX,x)

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.
For the given case though, I couldn't find any.

O_o

Yeah, I'm not getting it either; the instructions are crazy vague.

Code:

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if (0 = 0) do exit

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Does that insanity actually fit both roles?

Soma

Q should be some expression involving a,b,i,y (those things involved in the loop)

Quote:

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Q should be some expression involving a,b,i,y (those things involved in the loop)

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Bwahahaa!

Okay, so, just to confirm here, this isn't about writing code at all is it? It is about reasoning through existing code isn't it?

Soma

I think so.
Something conceptually similar to assert.
Thats why I think Q will be "y==i*b".
But I have no idea what P can be.

(W.r.t the first comment, shouldn't language/implementation based things like INT_MAX, be left out of consideration in algorithms? )