[LAC]Introduction to languages
Introduction to languages Overview In this year, i enrolled a module called Language and Computation which will cover automata theory, languages and computation. In the very first view, we need to define what are languages and the related terms. Reference : Introduction to Automata Theory, Languages, and Computation. A language is a (possibly infinite) set of words. A word is a finite sequence (or string) of symbols. ε denotes the empty word, the sequence of zero symbols. A symbol is anything, but it has to come from an alphabet Σ which is a finite set A common (and important) instance is Σ = {0, 1}. ε, the empty word, is never a symbol of an alphabet. alphabet so what is the difference between “alphabet” and “symbol”? On the reference book 1.5.1, it says, “an alphabet is a finite, non-empty set of symbols” Conventionally, we use the symbol Σ for an alphabet. Common alphabets include: 1. Σ = {0, 1}, the binary alphabet 2. Σ = {a, b, …, z}, the set of all lower-...