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grammar::fa::op(n) Finite automaton operations and usage grammar::fa::op(n) 





NAME


grammar::fa::op - Operations on finite automatons






SYNOPSIS


package require Tcl 8.4


package require snit 


package require struct::list 


package require struct::set 


package require grammar::fa::op ?0.4.1?


::grammar::fa::op::constructor cmd


::grammar::fa::op::reverse fa


::grammar::fa::op::complete fa ?sink?


::grammar::fa::op::remove_eps fa


::grammar::fa::op::trim fa ?what?


::grammar::fa::op::determinize fa
  ?mapvar?


::grammar::fa::op::minimize fa ?mapvar?


::grammar::fa::op::complement fa


::grammar::fa::op::kleene fa


::grammar::fa::op::optional fa


::grammar::fa::op::union fa fb
    ?mapvar?


::grammar::fa::op::intersect fa fb
    ?mapvar?


::grammar::fa::op::difference fa fb
    ?mapvar?


::grammar::fa::op::concatenate fa fb
    ?mapvar?


::grammar::fa::op::fromRegex fa regex
    ?over?


::grammar::fa::op::toRegexp fa


::grammar::fa::op::toRegexp2 fa


::grammar::fa::op::toTclRegexp regexp
  symdict


::grammar::fa::op::simplifyRegexp regexp










DESCRIPTION


This package provides a number of complex operations on finite
    automatons (Short: FA), as provided by the package grammar::fa. The
    package does not provide the ability to create and/or manipulate such FAs,
    nor the ability to execute a FA for a stream of symbols. Use the packages
    grammar::fa and grammar::fa::interpreter for that. Another
    package related to this is grammar::fa::compiler which turns a FA
    into an executor class which has the definition of the FA hardwired into
  it.


For more information about what a finite automaton is see section
    FINITE AUTOMATONS in package grammar::fa.






API


The package exports the API described here. All commands modify
    their first argument. I.e. whatever FA they compute is stored back into it.
    Some of the operations will construct an automaton whose states are all new,
    but related to the states in the source automaton(s). These operations take
    variable names as optional arguments where they will store mappings which
    describe the relationship(s). The operations can be loosely partitioned into
    structural and language operations. The latter are defined in terms of the
    language the automaton(s) accept, whereas the former are defined in terms of
    the structural properties of the involved automaton(s). Some operations are
    both. Structure operations



  
::grammar::fa::op::constructor cmd

  
This command has to be called by the user of the package before any other
      operations is performed, to establish a command which can be used to
      construct a FA container object. If this is not done several operations
      will fail as they are unable to construct internal and transient
      containers to hold state and/or partial results.
    
Any container class using this package for complex operations
        should set its own class command as the constructor. See package
        grammar::fa for an example.

  

  
::grammar::fa::op::reverse fa

  
Reverses the fa. This is done by reversing the direction of all
      transitions and swapping the sets of start and final states.
      The language of fa changes unpredictably.

  
::grammar::fa::op::complete fa ?sink?

  
Completes the fa complete, but nothing is done if the
      fa is already complete. This implies that only the first in
      a series of multiple consecutive complete operations on fa will
      perform anything. The remainder will be null operations.
    
The language of fa is unchanged by this operation.

    
This is done by adding a single new state, the sink,
        and transitions from all other states to that sink for all symbols they
        have no transitions for. The sink itself is made complete by adding loop
        transitions for all symbols.

    
Note: When a FA has epsilon-transitions transitions over a
        symbol for a state S can be indirect, i.e. not attached directly to S,
        but to a state in the epsilon-closure of S. The symbols for such
        indirect transitions count when computing completeness of a state. In
        other words, these indirectly reached symbols are not
      missing.

    
The argument sink provides the name for the new state
        and most not be present in the fa if specified. If the name is
        not specified the command will name the state "sinkn",
        where n is set so that there are no collisions with existing
        states.

    
Note that the sink state is not useful by definition.
        In other words, while the FA becomes complete, it is also not
        useful in the strict sense as it has a state from which no final
        state can be reached.

  

  
::grammar::fa::op::remove_eps fa

  
Removes all epsilon-transitions from the fa in such a manner the
      the language of fa is unchanged. However nothing is done if the
      fa is already epsilon-free. This implies that only the first
      in a series of multiple consecutive complete operations on fa will
      perform anything. The remainder will be null operations.
    
Note: This operation may cause states to become
        unreachable or not useful. These states are not removed by this
        operation. Use ::grammar::fa::op::trim for that instead.

  

  
::grammar::fa::op::trim fa ?what?

  
Removes unwanted baggage from fa. The legal values for what
      are listed below. The command defaults to !reachable|!useful if no
      specific argument was given.







  
!reachable

  
Removes all states which are not reachable from a start state.

  
!useful

  
Removes all states which are unable to reach a final state.

  
!reachable&!useful

  

  
!(reachable|useful)

  
Removes all states which are not reachable from a start state and are
      unable to reach a final state.

  
!reachable|!useful

  

  
!(reachable&useful)

  
Removes all states which are not reachable from a start state or are
      unable to reach a final state.









  
::grammar::fa::op::determinize fa ?mapvar?

  
Makes the fa deterministic without changing the language accepted
      by the fa. However nothing is done if the fa is already
      deterministic. This implies that only the first in a series of
      multiple consecutive complete operations on fa will perform
      anything. The remainder will be null operations.
    
The command will store a dictionary describing the
        relationship between the new states of the resulting dfa and the states
        of the input nfa in mapvar, if it has been specified. Keys of the
        dictionary are the handles for the states of the resulting dfa, values
        are sets of states from the input nfa.

    
Note: An empty dictionary signals that the command was
        able to make the fa deterministic without performing a full
        subset construction, just by removing states and shuffling transitions
        around (As part of making the FA epsilon-free).

    
Note: The algorithm fails to make the FA deterministic
        in the technical sense if the FA has no start state(s), because
        determinism requires the FA to have exactly one start states. In that
        situation we make a best effort; and the missing start state will be the
        only condition preventing the generated result from being
        deterministic. It should also be noted that in this case the
        possibilities for trimming states from the FA are also severely reduced
        as we cannot declare states unreachable.

  

  
::grammar::fa::op::minimize fa ?mapvar?

  
Creates a FA which accepts the same language as fa, but has a
      minimal number of states. Uses Brzozowski's method to accomplish this.
    
The command will store a dictionary describing the
        relationship between the new states of the resulting minimal fa and the
        states of the input fa in mapvar, if it has been specified. Keys
        of the dictionary are the handles for the states of the resulting
        minimal fa, values are sets of states from the input fa.

    
Note: An empty dictionary signals that the command was
        able to minimize the fa without having to compute new states.
        This should happen if and only if the input FA was already minimal.

    
Note: If the algorithm has no start or final states to
        work with then the result might be technically minimal, but have a very
        unexpected structure. It should also be noted that in this case the
        possibilities for trimming states from the FA are also severely reduced
        as we cannot declare states unreachable.

  




Language operations All operations in this section require
    that all input FAs have at least one start and at least one final state.
    Otherwise the language of the FAs will not be defined, making the operation
    senseless (as it operates on the languages of the FAs in a defined
  manner).



  
::grammar::fa::op::complement fa

  
Complements fa. This is possible if and only if fa is
      complete and deterministic. The resulting FA accepts the
      complementary language of fa. In other words, all inputs not
      accepted by the input are accepted by the result, and vice versa.
    
The result will have all states and transitions of the input,
        and different final states.

  

  
::grammar::fa::op::kleene fa

  
Applies Kleene's closure to fa. The resulting FA accepts all
      strings S for which we can find a natural number n (0
      inclusive) and strings A1 ... An in the language of
      fa such that S is the concatenation of A1 ...
      An. In other words, the language of the result is the infinite
      union over finite length concatenations over the language of fa.
    
The result will have all states and transitions of the input,
        and new start and final states.

  

  
::grammar::fa::op::optional fa

  
Makes the fa optional. In other words it computes the FA which
      accepts the language of fa and the empty the word (epsilon) as
      well.
    
The result will have all states and transitions of the input,
        and new start and final states.

  

  
::grammar::fa::op::union fa fb ?mapvar?

  
Combines the FAs fa and fb such that the resulting FA
      accepts the union of the languages of the two FAs.
    
The result will have all states and transitions of the two
        input FAs, and new start and final states. All states of fb which
        exist in fa as well will be renamed, and the mapvar will
        contain a mapping from the old states of fb to the new ones, if
        present.

    
It should be noted that the result will be non-deterministic,
        even if the inputs are deterministic.

  

  
::grammar::fa::op::intersect fa fb
    ?mapvar?

  
Combines the FAs fa and fb such that the resulting FA
      accepts the intersection of the languages of the two FAs. In other words,
      the result will accept a word if and only if the word is accepted by both
      fa and fb. The result will be useful, but not necessarily
      deterministic or minimal.
    
The command will store a dictionary describing the
        relationship between the new states of the resulting fa and the pairs of
        states of the input FAs in mapvar, if it has been specified. Keys
        of the dictionary are the handles for the states of the resulting fa,
        values are pairs of states from the input FAs. Pairs are represented by
        lists. The first element in each pair will be a state in fa, the
        second element will be drawn from fb.

  

  
::grammar::fa::op::difference fa fb
    ?mapvar?

  
Combines the FAs fa and fb such that the resulting FA
      accepts the difference of the languages of the two FAs. In other words,
      the result will accept a word if and only if the word is accepted by
      fa, but not by fb. This can also be expressed as the
      intersection of fa with the complement of fb. The result
      will be useful, but not necessarily deterministic or minimal.
    
The command will store a dictionary describing the
        relationship between the new states of the resulting fa and the pairs of
        states of the input FAs in mapvar, if it has been specified. Keys
        of the dictionary are the handles for the states of the resulting fa,
        values are pairs of states from the input FAs. Pairs are represented by
        lists. The first element in each pair will be a state in fa, the
        second element will be drawn from fb.

  

  
::grammar::fa::op::concatenate fa fb
    ?mapvar?

  
Combines the FAs fa and fb such that the resulting FA
      accepts the cross-product of the languages of the two FAs. I.e. a word W
      will be accepted by the result if there are two words A and B accepted by
      fa, and fb resp. and W is the concatenation of A and B.
    
The result FA will be non-deterministic.

  

  
::grammar::fa::op::fromRegex fa regex
    ?over?

  
Generates a non-deterministic FA which accepts the same language as the
      regular expression regex. If the over is specified it is
      treated as the set of symbols the regular expression and the automaton are
      defined over. The command will compute the set from the "S"
      constructors in regex when over was not specified. This set
      is important if and only if the complement operator "!" is used
      in regex as the complementary language of an FA is quite different
      for different sets of symbols.
    
The regular expression is represented by a nested list, which
        forms a syntax tree. The following structures are legal:

  







  
{S x}

  
Atomic regular expression. Everything else is constructed from these.
      Accepts the Symbol "x".

  
{. A1 A2 ...}

  
Concatenation operator. Accepts the concatenation of the regular
      expressions A1, A2, etc.
    
Note that this operator accepts zero or more arguments.
        With zero arguments the represented language is epsilon, the
        empty word.

  

  
{| A1 A2 ...}

  
Choice operator, also called "Alternative". Accepts all input
      accepted by at least one of the regular expressions A1, A2,
      etc. In other words, the union of A1, A2.
    
Note that this operator accepts zero or more arguments.
        With zero arguments the represented language is the empty
        language, the language without words.

  

  
{& A1 A2 ...}

  
Intersection operator, logical and. Accepts all input accepted which is
      accepted by all of the regular expressions A1, A2, etc. In
      other words, the intersection of A1, A2.

  
{? A}

  
Optionality operator. Accepts the empty word and anything from the regular
      expression A.

  
{* A}

  
Kleene closure. Accepts the empty word and any finite concatenation of
      words accepted by the regular expression A.

  
{+ A}

  
Positive Kleene closure. Accepts any finite concatenation of words
      accepted by the regular expression A, but not the empty word.

  
{! A}

  
Complement operator. Accepts any word not accepted by the regular
      expression A. Note that the complement depends on the set of symbol
      the result should run over. See the discussion of the argument over
      before.







  
::grammar::fa::op::toRegexp fa

  
This command generates and returns a regular expression which accepts the
      same language as the finite automaton fa. The regular expression is
      in the format as described above, for
    ::grammar::fa::op::fromRegex.

  
::grammar::fa::op::toRegexp2 fa

  
This command has the same functionality as
      ::grammar::fa::op::toRegexp, but uses a different algorithm to
      simplify the generated regular expressions.

  
::grammar::fa::op::toTclRegexp regexp symdict

  
This command generates and returns a regular expression in Tcl syntax for
      the regular expression regexp, if that is possible. regexp
      is in the same format as expected by ::grammar::fa::op::fromRegex.
    
The command will fail and throw an error if regexp
        contains complementation and intersection operations.

    
The argument symdict is a dictionary mapping symbol
        names to pairs of syntactic type and Tcl-regexp. If a symbol
        occurring in the regexp is not listed in this dictionary then
        single-character symbols are considered to designate themselves whereas
        multiple-character symbols are considered to be a character class
      name.

  

  
::grammar::fa::op::simplifyRegexp regexp

  
This command simplifies a regular expression by applying the following
      algorithm first to the main expression and then recursively to all
      sub-expressions:







  
[1]

  
Convert the expression into a finite automaton.

  
[2]

  
Minimize the automaton.

  
[3]

  
Convert the automaton back to a regular expression.

  
[4]

  
Choose the shorter of original expression and expression from the previous
      step.










EXAMPLES






BUGS, IDEAS, FEEDBACK


This document, and the package it describes, will undoubtedly
    contain bugs and other problems. Please report such in the category
    grammar_fa of the Tcllib Trackers
    [http://core.tcl.tk/tcllib/reportlist]. Please also report any ideas for
    enhancements you may have for either package and/or documentation.


When proposing code changes, please provide unified diffs,
    i.e the output of diff -u.


Note further that attachments are strongly preferred over
    inlined patches. Attachments can be made by going to the Edit form of
    the ticket immediately after its creation, and then using the left-most
    button in the secondary navigation bar.






KEYWORDS


automaton, finite automaton, grammar, parsing, regular expression,
    regular grammar, regular languages, state, transducer






CATEGORY


Grammars and finite automata






COPYRIGHT


Copyright (c) 2004-2008 Andreas Kupries <andreas_kupries@users.sourceforge.net>








  

    0.4
    tcllib