Finite Automata 1.1

Finite Automata is a teaching tool designed for integration within Computer Science curricula to facilitate the understanding of algorithm design through finite automata concepts. It emphasizes a pedagogical approach where students initially conceptualize and sketch automata manually on paper before transferring their designs to the application for simulation and testing.

The application offers a set of commands to define and manipulate automata:

• states n
  • Creates n states labeled from 0 to n-1.
  • The state 0 is designated as the initial state by default.
• add n
  • Adds a new state with label n.
• final n
  • Toggles the specified state n as a final (accepting) state.
  • Multiple states can be designated as final simultaneously.
• st1 event st2
  • Defines a transition from state st1 to state st2 triggered by the input event.
  • st1 and st2 are integers representing state labels.
  • Event is specified as a string without quotation marks.
• clear
  • Resets the automaton by removing all states and transitions.
• del state1
  • Deletes the specified state and all associated transitions.
• del state1 event state2
  • Removes the transition from state1 to state2 triggered by the specified event.
• help
  • Displays this guidance information.
  • showVisualizes the current automaton structure and transitions.

    An illustrative example demonstrates typical usage:

    > states 3
    > final 2
    > 0 a 1
    > 0 b 0
    > 1 a 2
    > 1 b 0
    > 2 a 2
    > 2 b 2

    This particular automaton recognizes strings over the alphabet {a, b} that contain the substring "aa". It exemplifies fundamental automata construction and testing within an instructional setting.