Turing's World 3.0 for Mac: An Introduction to Computability Theory: 35 (Center for the Study of Language and Information Publication Lecture Notes) - Softcover

Barwise, Jon; Etchemendy, John

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1881526100 ISBN 13: 9781881526100

Publisher: The Center for the Study of Language and Information Publications, 1993

Synopsis

Turing's World is a self-contained introduction to Turing machines, one of the fundamental notions of logic and computer science. The text and accompanying diskette allow the user to design, debug, and run sophisticated Turing machines in a graphical environment on the Macintosh. Turning's World introduces users to the key concpets in computability theory through a sequence of over 100 exercises and projects. Within minutes, users learn to build simple Turing machines using a convenient package of graphical functions. Exercises then progress through a significant portion of elementary computability theory, covering such topics as the Halting problem, the Busy Beaver function, recursive functions, and undecidability. Version 3.0 is an extensive revision and enhancement of earlier releases of the program, allowing the construction of one-way and two-way finite state machines (finite automata), as well as nondeterministic Turing and finite-state machines. Special exercises allow users to explore these alternative machines.

About this title

Review

'Turning's World is a delight ... I heartily recommend [it].' James Moor, Teaching Philosophy

'Turing's World quite literally revolutionizes the way the fundamental theoretical issues of computing can be taught.' Keith Devlin, The Guardian

'There is not the slightest hint of jargon anywhere in [this book]. The explanations are so direct that a beginner will understand them and an old hand will enjoy them.' Wilfrid Hodges, Queen Mary College

'The program and manual are the best introduction to Turing machines the reviewer knows of, or can imagine.' George Boolos, Journal of Symbolic Logic

Edition details

• Publisher: The Center for the Study of Language and Information Publications
• Publication date: 1993
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1881526100
• ISBN 13: 9781881526100
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 142