Simulators: Tools for Teaching Theory of Computation

Abstract

This paper describes simulators, which are programming tools that make available the following formalisms: Turing machine, register machine and post machine. With these simulators it is possible to teach theory of computation in a new way, where students may visualise numerical computed functions and check language recognition including, therefore, the chapters of computability and universal machines. These simulators are part of the project Theory of Computation Laboratory. This project also consists of a set of educational software simulators built to improve teaching with quality and provide tools for the remote teaching project. The objective of this research is to develop software that gives more flexibility to its users in editing and creating abstract machines, by providing a friendly user interface, a large set of operations, and a knowledge base of these machines. This is the foundation for an integrated teaching environment on the Web