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A mobile app for teaching formal languages and automata
Author(s) -
Pereira Carlos H.,
Terra Ricardo
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
computer applications in engineering education
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.478
H-Index - 29
eISSN - 1099-0542
pISSN - 1061-3773
DOI - 10.1002/cae.21944
Subject(s) - computer science , formal language , android (operating system) , recursively enumerable language , automaton , process (computing) , context (archaeology) , programming language , multimedia , theoretical computer science , human–computer interaction , algorithm , paleontology , biology , operating system
Formal Languages and Automata (FLA) address mathematical models able to specify and recognize languages, their properties and characteristics. Although solid knowledge of FLA is extremely important for a B.Sc. degree in Computer Science and similar fields, the algorithms and techniques covered in the course are complex and difficult to assimilate. Therefore, this article presents FLApp, a mobile application—which we consider the new way to reach students—for teaching FLA. The application—developed for mobile phones and tablets running Android—provides students not only with answers to problems involving Regular, Context‐free, Context‐Sensitive, and Recursively Enumerable Languages, but also an Educational environment that describes and illustrates each step of the algorithms to support students in the learning process.