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Varphi: a description language for Turing machines

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Bibliographic Details
Title:	Varphi: a description language for Turing machines
Authors:	El-Sheikha, Hassan, Mahmoud, Mohammad A.
Publisher Information:	Western Canada Conference of Computing Education, 2025.
Publication Year:	2025
Subject Terms:	Computer science--Study and teaching, Turing machines, Programming languages (Electronic computers), Computable functions
Description:	Conventional representations of Turing machines often overwhelm students of computability theory and obscure fundamental computational ideas. Varphi is a domain-specific language designed to streamline Turing machine specification with a minimalist syntax and integrated debugging tools. In preliminary classroom trials involving 184 participants tackling deliberately challenging tasks, 88% of students successfully completed them using Varphi, highlighting the tool’s potential utility. This paper presents a technical overview of Varphi and analyzes its pedagogical benefits.
Document Type:	Article
Language:	English
DOI:	10.60770/wzt9-s649
Rights:	CC BY
Accession Number:	edsair.doi...........5513e5778af8e4978f0945e30bd691e6
Database:	OpenAIRE

Description
Abstract:	Conventional representations of Turing machines often overwhelm students of computability theory and obscure fundamental computational ideas. Varphi is a domain-specific language designed to streamline Turing machine specification with a minimalist syntax and integrated debugging tools. In preliminary classroom trials involving 184 participants tackling deliberately challenging tasks, 88% of students successfully completed them using Varphi, highlighting the tool’s potential utility. This paper presents a technical overview of Varphi and analyzes its pedagogical benefits.
DOI:	10.60770/wzt9-s649