States and Finite State Automata
- As you might expect, finite state automatas are based around
states.
- Typically, an FSA is in exactly one state at a time.
- You can run these to generate output, recognise input, or
respond to input.
- For today, we'll talk about responding to input.
- So, a state is connected to other states by the possible inputs it
can receive.
- There are a finite number of states, and a finite number of types
of input (that's called the alphabet).
- There are arcs (labelled with an input) from a state to another
state.
- If the automata is in a state and gets a labelled input, it goes
to the appropriate next state.
