<p>I am vaguely aware that it's possible to do some computations with formal languages in GAP, but I don't know the details, sorry.  There is a package <a href="http://www.gap-system.org/Manuals/pkg/automata/doc/chap0.html#contents" rel="nofollow">"Automata"</a>, but I'm not sure if there's anything for grammars.</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2012-04-14T00:04:29.927Z
[Here](http://www.gap-system.org/Packages/automata.html) is a more comprehensive page for the Automata package for the [GAP system](http://www.gap-system.org/gap.html) for Computational Discrete Algebra. As Tara B said, there seems to be nothing already packaged in GAP for grammars. But a search for "formal language software" turns up [JFlap](http://www.jflap.org/) which looks interesting, though I know nothing about it.
David Lewis
CC BY-SA 3.0
2013-04-24T20:12:45.017Z
@Tara B, I was told you may be able to answer this question: http://cstheory.stackexchange.com/questions/17326/name-this-digraph
Chad Brewbaker
CC BY-SA 3.0
2012-04-13T22:42:03.573Z
2012-04-13T22:42:03.573Z
Tara B
<p>I need support for: grammars, equivalence classes, finite sets, and some smallest grammar approximation functions.  </p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2012-04-13T21:34:59.893Z
Welcome to cstheory, a Q&A site for *research-level* questions in *theoretical computer science* (TCS). Your question does not appear to be a research-level question in TCS. Please see the [FAQ] for more information on what is meant by this and suggestions for sites that might welcome your question. Finally, if your question is closed for being out of scope, and you believe you can edit the question to make it a research-level question, please feel free to do so. Closing is not permanent and questions can be reopened, check the [FAQ] for more information.
Kaveh
CC BY-SA 3.0
2012-04-13T21:35:17.990Z
For non-research level question please consider posting on [cs.se].
Kaveh
CC BY-SA 3.0
2012-04-13T22:34:20.557Z
@Kaveh:  I don't see why this question should be considered out of scope.
Tara B
CC BY-SA 3.0
2012-04-14T00:05:50.970Z
unfortunately there does not seem to be a lot of tools. would like to see more (open source) projects in this area. in particular am interested in a sophisticated turing machine construction system and simulator/debugger for building higher level abstractions. there is one excellent tool for its domain, the AT&T FSM library. there are other "odds and ends" or "bits and pieces" not unified together. for example "graphviz" is good at visualizing graphs. the AT&T library automatically outputs into that format.
vzn
CC BY-SA 3.0
2012-04-14T00:54:05.090Z
also it is not clear what you mean by "grammar approximation functions". however as for "smallest" try "grammar based code" on wikipedia (also called "grammar based compression")
vzn
CC BY-SA 3.0
2012-04-14T04:34:37.597Z
@Tara, I see that you are new to cstheory. Typically asking for tools/software/packages is not in the scope of cstheory. I also don't see how this is a research-level question in theoretical computer science.
Kaveh
CC BY-SA 3.0
2012-04-14T12:01:32.810Z
@Kaveh:  Yes, I am new here.  But I've looked at the faq and didn't see anything there that indicated that questions about tools would not be welcome.  I had the impression that this site was supposed to something like mathoverflow for TCS.  On mathoverflow, questions about tools are generally welcome.
My expectation would be that Dan would be much more likely to get a good answer here than at Computer Science, since the people who use such software are probably mainly researchers in TCS.  But I might be wrong.
Tara B
CC BY-SA 3.0
2012-04-15T01:30:57.363Z
@Tara, the FAQ is only the most important items, part of the job of moderators is to remind new users about the site's policies. Asking for software recomendations are typically not on-topic, and in this case there is nothing that makes it a research level or research related. (I might be wrong but if I remember correctly that was the opinion of the community. I will add a link to the relevant discussion when I find it.)
Kaveh
<fl.formal-languages>
Does there exist a CAS for formal language theory?
Daniel Donnelly
# Does there exist a CAS for formal language theory?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2012-04-13)

I need support for: grammars, equivalence classes, finite sets, and some smallest grammar approximation functions.

**Tags:** fl.formal-languages

> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: Welcome to cstheory, a Q&A site for *research-level* questions in *theoretical computer science* (TCS). Your question does not appear to be a research-level question in TCS. Please see the [FAQ] for more information on what is meant by this and suggestions for sites that might welcome your question. Finally, if your question is closed for being out of scope, and you believe you can edit the question to make it a research-level question, please feel free to do so. Closing is not permanent and questions can be reopened, check the [FAQ] for more information.  
> **username_1**: For non-research level question please consider posting on [cs.se].  
> **username_2**: @username_1:  I don't see why this question should be considered out of scope.  
> **username_3**: unfortunately there does not seem to be a lot of tools. would like to see more (open source) projects in this area. in particular am interested in a sophisticated turing machine construction system and simulator/debugger for building higher level abstractions. there is one excellent tool for its domain, the AT&T FSM library. there are other "odds and ends" or "bits and pieces" not unified together. for example "graphviz" is good at visualizing graphs. the AT&T library automatically outputs into that format.  
> **username_3**: also it is not clear what you mean by "grammar approximation functions". however as for "smallest" try "grammar based code" on wikipedia (also called "grammar based compression")  
> **username_1**: @Tara, I see that you are new to cstheory. Typically asking for tools/software/packages is not in the scope of cstheory. I also don't see how this is a research-level question in theoretical computer science.  
> **username_2**: @username_1:  Yes, I am new here.  But I've looked at the faq and didn't see anything there that indicated that questions about tools would not be welcome.  I had the impression that this site was supposed to something like mathoverflow for TCS.  On mathoverflow, questions about tools are generally welcome. My expectation would be that Dan would be much more likely to get a good answer here than at Computer Science, since the people who use such software are probably mainly researchers in TCS.  But I might be wrong.  
> **username_1**: @Tara, the FAQ is only the most important items, part of the job of moderators is to remind new users about the site's policies. Asking for software recomendations are typically not on-topic, and in this case there is nothing that makes it a research level or research related. (I might be wrong but if I remember correctly that was the opinion of the community. I will add a link to the relevant discussion when I find it.)  

---

## 1 answers

### Answer by username_2 on 2012-04-13. Score: 2 | Accepted answer

I am vaguely aware that it's possible to do some computations with formal languages in GAP, but I don't know the details, sorry. There is a package ["Automata"](http://www.gap-system.org/Manuals/pkg/automata/doc/chap0.html#contents), but I'm not sure if there's anything for grammars.

> **Comments:**
> **username_4**: [Here](http://www.gap-system.org/Packages/automata.html) is a more comprehensive page for the Automata package for the [GAP system](http://www.gap-system.org/gap.html) for Computational Discrete Algebra. As username_2 said, there seems to be nothing already packaged in GAP for grammars. But a search for "formal language software" turns up [JFlap](http://www.jflap.org/) which looks interesting, though I know nothing about it.  
> **username_5**: @username_2, I was told you may be able to answer this question: http://cstheory.stackexchange.com/questions/17326/name-this-digraph  

---

