User blog comment:Ikosarakt1/My Turing machine programs/@comment-25418284-20130330212917/@comment-5150073-20130330224630

I used that trick when I tried to compute 2^1000000 (and thereby bypass the integer-type restriction). I just programmed the "doubling" on the TM that will run infinitely without computer. Then I simulated this TM, using Pascal-program that also counts the number of doublings. This method also allows me to check apocalyptic numbers from 2^0 to 2^1000000. So it may be quite helpful.