Introduction to the FIRE Engine: A C++ Toolkit for FInite Automata and RegularExpressions

摘要

The paper is an introduction to the programmer's interface of version 1.1 of theFIRE engine. The FIRE engine is a C++ class library implementing Finite automata and Regular Expression algorithms. The algorithms implemented in the toolkit are almost all of those presented in the taxonomies of finite automata algorithms. None of the implementation details of the library are discussed. The toolkit is unique in providing implementations of all of the known algorithms for constructing finite automata. The implementations, which were developed with efficiency in mind, are intended for use in production quality applications. No shell of graphical user-interface is provided, as the toolkit is intended for integration into applications. The implementations of the algorithms follow directly from the abstract algorithms. As such, the toolkit also serves as an educational example of the implementation of abstract algorithms.