This assignment has four problems about finite state machines and regular expressions. For this assignment you will be writing up your solutions using the LaTeX markup language.

You need to install three programs on your computer, Ghostscript, Ghostview and MikTeX. Use the instructions on this page.

This assignment makes use of files contained in this zip file. In the zip file is the LaTeX file CS410Hw2.tex. Change the name of this file to CS410Hw2Surname.tex where Surname is your last name (and also put your name in the appropriate place in the document). This LaTeX file contains the problems that you need to solve. You will also put your solutions in this file. You should try to use the LaTeX language to typeset your solutions. The best way to get started with LaTeX is to mimic LaTeX code. Look at how your homework problems are typeset in the file CS410Hw2Surname.tex and use that as a starting point for figuring out how to typeset your solutions. If you get stuck trying to figure out how to get LaTeX to do something, write to me and ask about it. If you get really stuck, fake it by using text to try and mimic what you want to typeset. As we go through the semester, you will get more used to using LaTeX, but at the beginning it can be kind of tricky. Also, you should download this collection of LaTeX help files and documentation.

In the zip file there is a portable version of the SciTE text editor and also a file SciTEGlobal.properties that contains the command line tools that you need for LaTeX. Open the file CS410Hw2Surname.tex using this copy of SciTE and then look in the "Tools" menu. To produce a PDF version of your homework assignment, first use the "LaTeX" tool to produce a "dvi" file. Then use the "DVIPS" tool to convert the dvi file into a "ps" file (that is, a PostScript file). Finally, use the "ps2pdf" tool to convert the PostScript file into a PDF file. Then you can read the problems.

The need to keep converting from one file type to another is caused by the LaTeX packages that are used to produce the Finite State Machine diagrams. If you are not drawing FSM's, then you can just use the "LaTeX" tool to create a dvi file and then use the "View DVI" tool to look at the resulting document. Or you could use the "PDFLaTeX" tool to directly create a PDF version of your document (and bypass the dvi and ps versions of your document). I prefer to work with dvi files (rather than PDF files) because the dvi viewer is many times faster than the PDF viewer (e.g., Adobe Acrobat Reader).

In the zip file there is documentation on how to typeset Finite State Machine diagrams. For example, there is the sample file ex-gastex.tex and its typeset version ex-gastex.pdf. And there is the web page GasTeX Automates, which contains many sample FSM's (click on any example to see its code). You can get started drawing FSM's by cutting and pasting from these examples into your homework assignment and then modifying appropriately.

Turn in your final version of the LaTeX file CS410Hw2Surname.tex containing your solutions to the four problems. This assignment is due Thursday, February 26.