05 Sunday May 2019
Posted in CS101
Tags
finite state machine, FSA, FSM, full adder, half adder, Python, state engine, state table, truth table
I was involved in a debate recently about whether a full adder logic circuit is a computer. The computer science answer is: “No, not as we define a computer.”
I plan to address that answer in detail on my main blog. Here I wanted to show some of the different ways a full adder can be modeled and implemented.
25 Wednesday Nov 2015
Posted in CS101
Tags
computer, computer code, computer programming, computer science, Python code, state engine, state table
In the first two parts of this series I’ve introduced state engines and taken apart a specific instance of an engine. Now it’s time to tie together the design idea with approaches to building a variety of such engines.
Because the programming logic is in the state table, the engine can be fairly generic. That means it’s possible to create a state engine framework you can reuse for a variety of applications.
11 Wednesday Nov 2015
Posted in CS101
Tags
computer, computer code, computer programming, computer science, Python code, state engine, state table
Last time I introduced state engines and state tables. I showed parts of a simple implementation of one in Python. It parsed the language introduced in Little Programming Languages. This post continues that, so be sure you’ve read that first article.
I got as far as the state table implementing the process, and that’s where this post picks up. I’ll also get into the SourceReader class that does the heavy lifting.
08 Sunday Nov 2015
Posted in CS101
At one point in my career, the state engine (SE) was one of my favorite AWK hammers. At the time much of the work involved text processing or, in some cases, serial byte processing (which is not quite the same thing). That sort of thing is right in the wheelhouse for a state engine.
They are a very useful tool and an important part of any programmer’s toolkit.
