Universal Turing Machine

The Universal Turing Machine is a Go program that simulates a Turing machine based on a description provided in a file and an input string. The machine processes the input string according to the rules defined in the file, simulating the computation step by step.

Features

• Customizable Machine Description: Specify the Turing machine description via a file.
• Input String Handling: Pass the input string via a flag or prompt.
• Verbose Mode: Display the tape and current state at each step.

Installation

1. Clone the repository:

Copy code
git clone https://github.com/yourusername/universal-turing-machine.git
cd universal-turing-machine

2. Build the project:

go build -o turing

Usage

The program accepts several command-line flags to control its behavior:

./turing [options]

####Options

• --help, -h: Display the help message.
• --verbose, -v: Display the tape and the current state of the machine at each step.
• --step, -s: Display the tape and the current state of the machine at each step, and wait for the user to press enter to continue.
• --input, -i <input_string>: Specify the input string for the machine. If not specified, the user will be prompted to enter the input string.
• --file, -f <file_path>: Specify the file containing the Turing machine description. If not specified, the user will be prompted to enter the file name.

Example

./turing --file example.tm --input 0101 --verbose

Turing Machine Description File Syntax

The Turing machine description file should follow this syntax:

• Each line contains a tuple in the form:
• : The current state of the machine.
• : The symbol currently being read.
• : The symbol to write.
• : The direction to move the tape ('l' for left, 'r' for right, '*' for no move).
• : The next state of the machine.
• Use _ to represent a blank (space) symbol.
• Use ; to add comments.
• States and symbols are case-sensitive.

Special Symbols

• • can be used as a wildcard in or to match any state or symbol.
• • in or means no change.

Example File

0 0 1 r 1
1 1 0 l 0
0 * * * halt
; This is a comment

Implementation Details

The project consists of several key functions:

• read_file(file_name string): Reads the file and returns a list of tuples.
• check_line_syntax(line string): Checks if the syntax of a line is correct.
• initialize_tape(input_string string): Initializes the tape with the input string.
• run_machine(tape *Tape): Runs the Turing machine on the tape using the specified transitions.
• display_tape(tape *Tape): Displays the current tape.
• display_state(state string): Displays the current state of the machine.
• main(): The main function that orchestrates the reading of inputs and running the machine.

Contributing

Feel free to open issues or submit pull requests if you find bugs or want to add features.

License

This project is licensed under the GNU GENERAL PUBLIC License. See the LICENSE file for details.