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In computer science, a computation history is a sequence of steps taken by an abstract machine in the process of computing its result. Computation histories are frequently used in proofs about the capabilities of certain machines, and particularly about the undecidability of various formal languages.
Formally, a computation history is a sequence of configurations of a formal automaton. Each configuration fully describes the status of the machine at a particular point. To be valid, certain conditions must hold:
In addition, to be complete, a computation history must be finite and
The definitions of "valid initial configuration", "valid transition", and "valid terminal configuration" vary for different kinds of formal machines.