[spider-mario]

Isn’t this a bit like saying “ ‘open object files are not open source’ is a complete misunderstanding” because “You can’t rebuild the executable from scratch, but you can’t do this even with the source code anyway (because of build nondeterminism / compiler versions / etc.)”?

[desterothx]

not really, compiling isnt a heuristic problem, it has a lot less randomness involved

[eru]

Depends on your compiler. You could have a compiler that deliberately uses randomised algorithms. They are often faster and easier to understand and write.

Though in practice you can get all the benefits of both determinism and (that kind of) randomisation by using a PRNG and saving the seed you are using.

It's an open question roughly on par with P vs NP whether true randomisation is ever necessary, or whether PRNGs are enough. So far we haven't found any problem or algorithm where true RNG is necessary and good PRNG ain't enough.

[pcmasterr]

Also, most (optimizing) compilers ”optimize” the code for a fixed amount of time, leading to better optimized binaries on faster computers. That’s why developers should have as fast computers money can buy!