Spreadsheet-style dependency tracking

[Lawrence D'Oliveiro]

In message 
<eeb52362-1308-4c3f-85a2-7493f796ab90 at g18g2000yqk.googlegroups.com>, Carl 
Banks wrote:

> On Oct 18, 4:15 pm, Lawrence D'Oliveiro <ldo at geek-central.gen.new_zealand>
> wrote:
>
>> In message
>> <42d82f8a-4ee6-44a7-914d-86dfc21f1... at a36g2000yqc.googlegroups.com>,
>> Fuzzyman wrote:
>>
>>> Allowing calculations to complete even in the presence of cycles can be
>>> very useful.
>>
>> But then the answer is no longer completely deterministic.
> 
> Yes it is ...

No, because it will change depending on the iteration number. And if the 
computation doesn’t converge, this is a recipe for oscillations, including 
chaotic ones.

Hmmm, I wonder how much of Wall Street’s crash-proneness can be blamed on 
dependency cycles in damned Excel spreadsheets...