Theory of Automata and Formal Languages

Outline:
Title Code Credit Hours Theory/week: Weight Contact Hours Lectures Duration 3 Cr. Hrs. 3 Hrs 2 1.5 Hrs Theory of Automata and Formal Languages

Prerequis ite Category Aims and Objective s Learning Outcome s

Discrete Structures Core The course aims to develop an appreciation of the theoretical foundations of computer science through study of mathematical & abstract models of computers and the theory of formal languages. Theory of formal languages and use of various abstract machines as recognizers and parsing will be studied for identifying/validating the synthetic characteristics of programming languages. 1. To give the students a better understanding of defining formal languages so that they may define different constructs of any programming language. 2. To acquaint the students with the recursive iteration of parts of procedure using Context Free Grammars. 3. To familiarize the students with Push Down Automata so that they may design parser in Compiler Construction. 4. To give the students an insight of the evolution of Computers by showing them the working of Turing machines. Finite State Models: Language definitions preliminaries, Regular expressions/Regular languages, Finite automata (FAs), Transition graphs (TGs), NFAs, Kleenes theorem, Transducers (automata with output), Pumping lemma and non regular language Grammars and PDA: Context free grammars, Derivations, derivation trees and ambiguity, Simplifying CFLs , Normal form grammars and parsing, Decidability, Chomskys hierarchy of grammars Turing Machines Theory: Turing machines, Post machine, Variations on TM, TM encoding, Universal Turing Machine, Context sensitive Grammars, Defining Computers by TMs. A. Introduction to Computer Theory, second edition Daniel I. A. Cohen, ISBN: 0072496681 A. B. y y An Introduction to Formal Languages and Automata, 3rd Edition, Peter Linz Introduction to Theory of Computation, 2nd Edition, Michael Sipser

Syllabus

Text Book/s Referenc e Material Instructi onal Aids/ Resource s Assessme nt Criteria

JFLAP (as a helping tool in Automata) Photocopy Facility for Handouts/Case Studies.

Sessional Mid Term 25% 25% Note: All the quizzes will be unannounced.

Final Term 50%

Framework

Week

Lecture

Topic

1 1

3 2 4

5 3 6

7 4 8

9 5 10

11 6

12

13 7 14 15 8 16

Introduction to Automata theory, Its background, Formal Languages, Introduction to defining languages, alphabet, language, word, null string, length of a string, reverse of a string, Palindrome, Kleene closure. Formal definition of Regular Expressions, Defining languages with regular expressions, Languages associated with regular expressions. Equality of Regular Expressions, Introducing the language EVENEVEN. More examples related to regular expressions. Introducing Finite Automata., Defining languages using Finite Automata. Constructing Finite Automata for different languages. Recognizing the language defined by the given Finite Automata. More examples related to Finite Automata. Transition Graphs with examples, Generalized Transition Graphs, Nondeterminism in case of Transition Graphs. Non-deterministic FAs. Differences between FA and NFA. More examples related to NFA. Kleenes Theorem: Converting Regular Expression into FAs. Conversting NFA into Regular Expression Kleenes Theorem: converting NFA into DFA Finite Automata with output. Moore and Mealy Machines Regular Languages, Closure properties (i.e. Union, Concatenation, Kleene closure, Complements and Intersections) of Regular Languages with examples. Decidability, decision procedure, Blue-paint method, Effective decision procedure to prove whether two given REs or FAs are equivalent. Checking whether languages are finite or infinite. Non-Regular Languages, The pumping Lemma, More Examples relating to Pumping Lemma. Critical Discussion and Revision Mid Exam

Source (BookChapter No. Section No.) A. Ch#1 , Ch#2

Required Study Hours

A.

Ch#4

A.

Ch#4

A.

Ch#4

Assignment #1

A.

Ch#5

Quiz # 1

A.

Ch#5

Assignment #2

A.

Ch#6

A.

Ch#7

A. A. A.

Ch#7 Ch#8 Ch#9

A.

Ch#7

Assignment #3

A. A. A.

Ch#9 Ch#9 Ch#11

17

Context-Free Grammars, Formal Definition of CFG. CFGs for Context Free Languages.

A.

Ch#12

Assignment # 4

18

19 10 20 21 11 22 23 12 24 25 13 26

27 14 28

29 15 30 31 16 32

CFGs of PALINDROME, EQUAL and EVEN-EVEN languages. More Examples of CFLs. Leftmost and Rightmost derivations. Parse Trees, Examples relating to Parse Trees, Ambiguous and Unambiguous CFGs. Total language tree. Lukasiewicz notation, Backus Naur Form (BNF) Simplification of CFGs. Killing null productions, Killing unit productions, CNF introduction. Chomsky Normal Form (CNF) with examples Pushdown Automata, Pushdown stack. Nondeterministic PDA. Examples related with PDA, PDA for Odd Palindrome, Even Palindrome, PalindromeX. Trace Tables, Proving CFG = PDA with examples Context Free Languages, their Closure Properties, Union, Concatenation and Kleene Closures using CFGs. Decidability: Emptiness and uselessness, Finiteness and Membership for CFL, Parsing Simple Arithmetic Turing Machines (TM), Formal Definition of TM, Turing Decidable Languages. TM with Non-Context Free Languages, Turing Machines vs Algorithms Solvability and Computability. Turing Recognizable Languages, Halting Problem Defining Computers by TMs. Computable Functions Final Revision

A.

Ch#12

A.

Ch#12

A. A.

Ch#12 Ch#13

Assignment # 5

A. A. A.

Ch#13 Ch#14 Ch#14 Assignment # 6

A. A.

Ch#15 Ch#17

A.

Ch#18

A.

Ch#18

Assignment #7

A.

Ch#19

A. A.

Ch#19 Ch#25