
Recursive Enumerability 93
4.2 Parameters
Next we want to turn our attention to the subject of calculating programs. That is,
suppose we want a program that will meet some particular need. Possibly we have a
good reason to know that a program exists that meets the need. But we might want
more than that; we might want actually to find such a program.
For example, we know that every total constant function is computable. (As noted
in item 2 in Chapter 2, every such function is primitive recursive.) But even more is
true. Given a constant k, we can actually compute an index of the one-place function
that is constantly equal to k. See Exercise 4 in Chapter ...