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I have been given a task to write a C language analyser using an AFD. I can choose whichever language I want so I think I will go for Ruby. However this task is a little overwhelming to grasp at the beginning.
The problem I stumble across is : How do I even represent the AFD of the entire C language?.
I have been doing a little bit of digging and I ended up reading this on lexical analysis. In this paper the author defines every token of the language as a transition between 2 states (which is very logical). I find it almost impossible for me not to miss a few or build such a big AFD by hand without many mistakes. Any tips ?
The task you have is a similar one posed to many undergraduate students in compiler courses every year in thousands of universities, and the notes you cite are good sample of the many sets of course notes available on the topic.
The solution is the same as any software engineering problem: testing against the specification.
Although the intellectual problem of the analysis and creation of AFDs for a whole language by hand might seem overwhelming error prone, don't forget you are tasked with also implementing this (in your chosen language of Ruby).
This implementation can be tested by feeding it carefully graded and selected samples of C language input. When it does not deliver the expected result there error will either be in the coding of the AFD or a fault in the AFD you constructed. You make the necessary change and go around the testing loop again.
You will eventually end up with a valid AFD for the entire C language and an analyser for it written in Ruby.
It is often a good idea to start small and implement a subset of the C language and get that working first and then add more to it using stepwise refinement. This is a less risky strategy than attempting to do the whole thing in one go.
You need to apply all those techniques you should have learned about building specifications, designs, programs and testing and apply it to this problem. Just apply good computer science and software engineering to this problem.
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I understand that an algorithm is a set of instructions. Ai is essentially the same thing, only, more complicated? Let's say I use a minmax algorithm to allow moves to be played on a tic tac toe board, generally people would consider this ai. But if I implement an algorithm to solve a rubiks cube, is that considered ai?
I guess what I'm asking is, is it the complexity of the algorithm, the fact that situations change on the fly in an algorithm, the ignorance of the user/programmer as to how the algorithm works or all/some of the above? Or am I missing something?
I feel like this field is quite arbitrary. I imagine for good reason.I imagine because complexity is complex.
It is indeed quite arbitrary.
If you consult wikipedia you might find following definition which in my personal opinion catches the load quite accurately:
Computer science defines AI research as the study of "intelligent
agents": any device that perceives its environment and takes actions
that maximize its chance of successfully achieving its goals. A more
elaborate definition characterizes AI as "a system's ability to
correctly interpret external data, to learn from such data, and to use
those learnings to achieve specific goals and tasks through flexible
adaptation."
To take your Rubiks Cube as an example, there would be at least 2 ways you could write the algoritm to solve the puzzle. Firstly, any cube can be solved by following a hardcoded path or set of instructions once you have a certain start position. Implementing this would not be considered AI in my opinion as the machine itself is not learning anything. It just follows a well defined path of instructions till the end.
A second way to implement this would be to have the program just start solving it randomly. But the machine remembers it's moves, and learns the most effective path to reach the solution. When solving the next cube, the machine can build upon this newly learned information to solve it faster and again learn from this iteration to improve it's algorithm.
So in short, as far as I'm concerned, it can be considered AI when a machine is capable of optimizing/extending its own algorithms to become more efficient in its tasks.
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I tried to find a good place to ask my question, which isn't programming, though it implies programming in C.
Our schoolteachers told us that we need to start exercise our programing skills, in C, based on math exersices. Even if I search the web for the best ways to solve such exersices and I came up with the Math library [<math.h>] I couldn't find a good page with many examples of solving exersices. My best course so far is Wikipedia but I can understand the fact that the Wikipedia can't store all the functionalities the library gives. I even looked in some examples want to find a complete coursebook for sovling all good math exersices we can make with a paper and a pen!
Have anyone any good idea?
So, you are trying to learn programming to solve math problems, that's good. But, I think you are getting a wrong idea about programming, Programming does not solve problems for you. To solve a problem, you have to decide on an algorithm to solve a problem and then create programmatic statements, in whichever language you like, then the program that you have created will give you an outcome based on the algorithm. You have to take the outcome and then decide yourself for further study.
for example
finding a factorial of a number
int i = number;
fact = 1;
while(i > 0)
fact * = i;
this way you will get a factorial of the number you specify, It is you who has to decide whether your algorithm is working fine, by comparing it with manual work, or with records. As you can see, the above program is an infinite loop and it is me who has to debug such issues, the program does not do that. Then What does a program do, it just automates what you do manual and help you save time and improve efficiency at work.
So to solve exercises, you have to understand problem statements and then script a program. I see you are talking about math library, we have good resource online to study important math functions which are highly useful, for in depth understand of their working open up the library files and study.
A Program can never solve your problem without you writing it, and deciding on its efficiency
See if this cmath solves you problem.
Header <cmath> declares a set of functions to compute common mathematical operations and transformations
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I just got my first programming book, and I just started programming.
I have a little question. Should I take notes while reading the book, or should I just memorize, and refer back if I forget something?
Thanks
Never read from just 1 book, read multiple books on the subject to get a better picture.
for C read The C Programming Language, How To Program - C, C: A complete reference and then C a reference manual(by Harbison and Steele) touching on at least C99
Take notes, keep a book handy at all times - think before you ink though.
Always sit by a computer + text editor + compiler (yes, do not use an IDE - learn with manual compilation)
Learn good debugging techniques, gdb is fine to start off with(although has a significant learning curve)
Be attentive to what is being said in the books and - also do not forget to experiment all the time. Programming is best learnt by doing it/practicing it.
The best thing to do is to understand what is being said to you by the book, I've tried memorizing before.. it doesn't work I would suggest a bit of both, but mostly understanding it that way you would know what you are coding also practice your level of confidence of coding will increase and you'll continue to want to code more.
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What are the key differences between Ruby and C?
They are almost totally different.
Ruby
Strong, dynamic typing
Purely object oriented
Automatic garbage collection and no pointers
Interpreted (or JIT compilation with JRuby/IronRuby)
Reflective
Supports functional programming (closures, coroutines, etc.)
No preprocessor or macros
C
Weak, static typing
Procedural (not object oriented)
Not garbage collected and has pointers
Compiled
No reflection
Does not support functional programming
Has a preprocessor and supports macros
To Ruby From C and C++
Why do you ask? Do you have a specific project or goals in mind?
In addition to what others have already mentioned; I'd also say that some key differences to keep in mind is that the C family is much more portable....or rather, much easier to distribute the finished software. C programs will also be much faster than Ruby...whether that is important or not depends on what you are building (well, that's ALWAYS important, but it isn't a make or break proposition for a lot of programs).
Ruby is just simply a beautiful language to work with (do not underestimate the importance of a language that works with you); developing programs is much quicker in Ruby than C ( C is a compiled language, so that is to be expected )...Ruby is also a pretty simple language to learn; most people consider C to be fairly tough for newbies to pick up.
-- edit --
wow, just saw this was a 3 year old thread....my bad
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Just out of curiosity, assuming there exists a software life form. How would you detect him/her? What are your criteria of figuring out if something/someone is intelligent or not?
It seems to me that it should be quite simple to create such software once you set the right target (not just following a naive "mimic human->pass Turing Test" way).
When posting an answer try also finding a counter example. I have real difficuly inventing anything consistent which I myself agree with.
Warmup
First we need to understand what a life form is.
Take this explanation, for example:
An entity which exists and tries to continue its existence through nourishment or procreation.
If we accept this explanation then in fact many programs represent a life form.
They exist, that's obvious. They attempt to continue their existence through opening child processes, surviving in persistent data storages and continuing the next day.
So, here we are, among digital life forms around us.
On the other hand, there's the idea of evolving and being sentient.
With evolving, it's easy. Many programs have been written to be able to modify their body to adapt to certain scenarios. Computer viruses are first examples of that.
With sentience, it is a different story. An entity needs to be aware of its existence, understand itself and the environment around it, also take active decisions on its life activities.
A computer program has nothing of that kind. In fact, if it still applies, the scientists haven't figured out the definition of "being aware of itself" and consciousness. So until we know what that means, we can't attribute that quality to an entity or the other way around, to take it away.
The bottom line is, you can argue a computer program to be a life form, but it does not qualify for a sentient being.
Thinks humanly, acts humanly.
OR
Thinks rationally, acts rationally.