A basic interpreter for Turing Machines.
It is advised to have some knowledge of the operations of a Turing Machine before using this program.
(if you have not encountered Turing Machines before, click here for a detailed introduction which will provide more than enough information to get you started)
usage: python -m interpreter [machine file path]
The Turing Machine files used by this program follow a basic syntax, which is explained below:
This file does nothing, running it will not give you any meaningful results. It is solely an example.
alphabet: xyz
tape: xxyyzz
tape_offset: 0
start_state: S0
accepting_states: S0 S1
rule: S0 xy yz r S1
The alphabet keyword defines the set of characters that can be placed in a cell on the tape. Give every character contained in the alphabet consecutively in a string.
The tape keyword defines the initial values written on the tape.
The tape_offset keyword refers to the rightward offset of the head upon initialising the tape. Set this to any integer n where n is in the range 0 to the length of the initial tape.
The start_state keyword defines the state in which the program will begin in.
The accepting_states keyword defines the states which the program will accept as valid once the machine has finished running.
Multiple rules can be introduced. A rule will tell the program what to do when reading a certain value in a certain state. Rules can be defined using this syntax:
rule: <active state> <read value> <write value> <head movement direction> <next state>
Please note that you can set the write value to none if you do not want it to write anything to the cell.