Cyclic Tag System: 1 Line of Turing-Complete Code

Also slightly shorter:

  while word[S:]: pIndex, word = (pIndex + 1) % len(C), word[1:] + C[pIndex] * (word[0] == "1")

  while word[S:]: pIndex, word = (pIndex + 1) % len(C), word[1:] + C[pIndex] * int(word[0])

This article is so lacking that I really think it harms more than it helps. A teaching article like this should be laser focused on teaching the subject, not putting jargon in your path, or trying to write the shortest possible code. Or, if you do write the shortest code, go into great detail to accurately explain how it works. The details of this page don't make much sense.

Here are the specific problems that I found:

1. The code doesn't work. I don't know python, but code should work when I try to run it. Ideally, this could should be presented as a function. And it didn't work not because of missing input parameters, but because of a syntax error on the second line.

2. The psuedo-code doesn't work. Consider that line 1.1.2 merely assigns the input word to itself, without modification. This isn't reflected in the python where it looks like the intent is to slice the first element off. Additionally, the variable p is not defined (but I think can be inferred to be the length of the fixed 'C' input parameter).

I suppose I'm annoyed that such an intriguing topic is being mishandled. I recognize the helpful intent, but not matter how helpful the intent when the code is broken and the explanation is wrong, this article would be better off not being on the internet unless it is corrected.

    while len(word) > S : pIndex, word = (pIndex + 1) % len(C), word[1:] + C[pIndex] 
    if (word[0] == "1") else word[1:]