Automata-based programming is a programming paradigm in which the program or its part is thought of as a model of a finite state machine (FSM) or any other (often more complicated) formal automaton (see automata theory). Sometimes a potentially-infinite set of possible states is introduced, and such a set can have a complicated structure, not just an enumeration.
FSM-based programming is generally the same, but, formally speaking, doesn't cover all possible variants as FSM stands for finite state machine and automata-based programming doesn't necessarily employ FSMs in the strict sense.
The following properties are key indicators for automata-based programming:
- The time period of the program's execution is clearly separated down to the steps of the automaton. Each of the steps is effectively an execution of a code section (same for all the steps), which has a single entry point. Such a section can be a function or other routine, or just a cycle body. The step section might be divided down to subsection to be executed depending on different states, although this is not necessary.
- Any communication between the steps is only possible via the explicitly noted set of variables named the state. Between any two steps, the program (or its part created using the automata-based technique) can not have implicit components of its state, such as local (stack) variables' values, return addresses, the current instruction pointer etc. That is, the state of the whole program, taken at any two moments of entering the step of the automaton, can only differ in the values of the variables being considered as the state of the automaton.
The whole execution of the automata-based code is a (possibly explicit) cycle of the automaton's steps.
Another reason to use the notion of automata-based programming is that the programmer's style of thinking about the program in this technique is very similar to the style of thinking used to solve math-related tasks using Turing machine, Markov algorithm etc.
Read more about Automata-based Programming: Example, Applications, History, Compared Against Imperative and Procedural Programming, Object-oriented Programming Relationship
Famous quotes containing the word programming:
“If there is a price to pay for the privilege of spending the early years of child rearing in the driver’s seat, it is our reluctance, our inability, to tolerate being demoted to the backseat. Spurred by our success in programming our children during the preschool years, we may find it difficult to forgo in later states the level of control that once afforded us so much satisfaction.”
—Melinda M. Marshall (20th century)