The Main Menu Bar
AUTOMATA main menu lists several items: file, simul, edit, alph, tape, help.
Each item has a submenu.
All actions and in particular the selections in the menu bar or submenus are carried on by pushing and releasing the mouse left button, except when otherwise explicitely stated.
- Submenu
file
- It contains four options:
New, Save, Load, and Quit.
New
- allows the editing of a new automaton, erasing the current one, if any; a safety control prevents from loosing an automaton by mistake;
Load and Save
- allow loading pre-existing automata files and saving current automaton; file selections are possible using a file selection box;
loading a file erases the current automaton, if any; a safety control prevents from loosing an automaton by mistake;
Quit
- obviously causes quitting the application; a safety control prevents from loosing an automaton by mistake.
- Submenu
simul
- It contains four options:
Finite Automata, Pushdown Automata, Turing Machine, Grammar Module.
Finite Automata
- provides access to finite automata simulation;
Pushdown Automata
- provides access to pushdown automata simulation;
Turing Machine
- will provide access to Turing machine simulation: not implemented yet;
Grammar Module
- provides access to the grammar module.
- Submenu
edit
- Provides access to editing facilities.
the submenu has the following options:
Add, Move and Menu.
Add
- allows users to add on the editing area new nodes and arc; a node is obtained pushing the left mouse button on the editing area; an arc is obtained clicking on the starting node and then on the arriving node;
Move
- allows users to move the existing nodes on the editing area; to move a node the user must select it (clicking on it with the mouse) and then change its position;
Menu
- allows users to choose attributes for nodes and arcs; to do it the user must select an arc or a node and then choose one of the following options: on a node
Name Node, Type Node, Delete Node; on an arc Name Arc, Delete Arc;
Name Node
- allows users to write a name for the state represented by current node; this name will appear as a label in the centre of the node;
Type Node
- allows users to choose the type of current node; a node can be:
Default Node, Start Node, End Node, Start & End Node;
Delete Node
- allows users to delete the selected node;
Name Arc
- allows users to choose the input symbol that must be written on the selected arc;
Delete Arc
- allows users to delete the selected arc;
- Submenu
alph
- This submenu contains two options:
Language, Stack.
Language
- allows users to choose the symbols of the input alphabet; the user can use letters and numbers from 0 to 9;
Stack
- allows users to choose the symbols of the stack alphabet for the PDA model;
- Submenu
tape
- it contains three options:
Save, Load and Clear;
Load
- allows users to load input tape on the input tape area of the main window;
it uses a standard loading window;
Save
- allows users to save the current tape on the input tape area of the main window, if any; it uses a standard saving window;
Clear
- allows users to clear the input tape area;
- Submenu
help
- provides some help allowing to select among a
short help, a symbol table, the hypertext manual and the automata tutorial.
short help
- provides a minimum help reminding the main features of the application and its main interface choices
symbol table
- is the table of the symbols used by the application, mainly for the PDA model
hypertext manual
- to start this hypertext manual under Mosaic
automata tutorial
- to start a concise tutorial on automata, also in hypertext form running under Mosaic
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