An implementation of algorithms to define and manipulate finite automata and regular expressions

Abstract

The main purpose of the work described in this chapter is to enable the user to define and modify deterministic and non-deterministic finite automata. The first step is to allow the user to define states and transitions for both deterministic and non-deterministic finite state automata and to subsequently modify them. It is possible at this stage to systematically rename final and other states. Functions are provided to convert non-deterministic finite automata to deterministic finite automata and also to trim and minimize automata. The minimization process produces a minimum state automaton. We will abbreviate the expressions deterministic finite automata and non-deterministic finite automata to DFA and NBFA respectively.