Related papers: Functional Automata - Formal Languages for Compute…

Regular expressions in an Automata Theory and Formal Languages course are mostly treated as a theoretical topic. That is, to some degree their mathematical properties and their role to describe languages is discussed. This approach fails to…

Formal grammars are extensively used in Computer Science and related fields to study the rules which govern production of a language. The use of these grammars can be extended beyond mere language production. One possibility is to view…

Computer Science students, in general, find Automata Theory difficult and mostly unrelated to their area of study. To mitigate these perceptions, FSM, a library to program state machines and grammars, was developed to bring programming to…

Deterministic and nondeterministic finite automata (DFAs and NFAs) are abstract models of computation commonly taught in introductory computing theory courses. These models have important applications (such as fast regular expression…

In Formal Languages and Automata Theory courses, students find understanding nondeterministic finite-state and pushdown automata difficult. In many cases, this means that it is challenging for them to comprehend the operational semantics of…

A functional hardware description language enables students to gain a working understanding of computer systems, and to see how the levels of abstraction fit together. By simulating circuits, digital design becomes a living topic, like…

Students find their first course in Formal Languages and Automata Theory challenging. In addition to the development of formal arguments, most students struggle to understand nondeterministic computation models. In part, the struggle stems…

Most Formal Languages and Automata Theory courses explore the duality between computation models to recognize words in a language and computation models to generate words in a language. For students unaccustomed to formal statements, these…

In order to work with mathematical content in computer systems, it is necessary to represent it in formal languages. Ideally, these are supported by tools that verify the correctness of the content, allow computing with it, and produce…

We report on several scenarios of using automated theorem proving software in university education. In particular, we focus on using the Theorema system in a software-enhanced logic-course for students in computer science or artificial…

Foundations of formal languages, as subfield of theoretical computer science, are part of typical upper secondary education curricula. There is very little research on the potential difficulties that students at this level have with this…

Education in the practical applications of logic and proving such as the formal specification and verification of computer programs is substantially hampered by the fact that most time and effort that is invested in proving is actually…

Formal methods provide systematic and rigorous techniques for software development. We strongly believe that they must be taught in computer science curricula. In this paper we present the pedagogic rationale and the concrete implementation…

Formal methods yet advantageous, face challenges towards wide acceptance and adoption in software development practices. The major reason being presumed complexity. The issue can be addressed by academia with a thoughtful plan of teaching…

Real-life conjectures do not come with instructions saying whether they they should be proven or, instead, refuted. Yet, as we now know, in either case the final argument produced had better be not just convincing but actually verifiable in…

This article presents a visualization tool for designing and debugging deterministic finite-state machines in FSM -- a domain specific language for the automata theory classroom. Like other automata visualization tools, users can edit…

Interactive proof assistants make it possible for ordinary mathematicians to write definitions and theorems in a formal proof language, like a programming language, so that a computer can parse them and check them against the rules of a…

Large Language Models (LLMs) have emerged as powerful tools for automating code generation, offering immense potential to enhance programmer productivity. However, their non-deterministic nature and reliance on user input necessitate a…

This book explores an alternative to the current dominant paradigm where a discrete computer model is constructed as an attempt to approximate some continuum theory. We focus on a class of discrete computer models that are based on simple…

Students sometimes produce code that works but that its author does not comprehend. For example, a student may apply a poorly-understood code template, stumble upon a working solution through trial and error, or plagiarize. Similarly,…