# Program for working with DFA/NFA/PDA?

I'm looking for a program or utility to help construct DFA/NFA/PDA etc. and the like.

The main reason I'm interested in this, is because I want to be able to move the various states around without breaking their component connections, or having to redraw all the connections to their new place (otherwise I'd be doing this by hand! :P )

Please let me know if there's a better SE site for this.

-
Mind defining the abbreviations for non-specialists like me? – J. M. Nov 22 '10 at 14:48
@JM: DFA=deterministic finite automata, NFA=nondeterministic finite automata, PDA=pushdown automata. That said I am not sure if this is the right/best place for this question. – Timothy Wagner Nov 22 '10 at 14:51
@Raven: By construct do you mean draw? – Timothy Wagner Nov 22 '10 at 14:53
@J.M. -- Timothy has the right of it. Like I said, if there's a better place for this question, I'm all ears. However, the only computer science site I know about is theoretical computer science which is way beyond the scope of a question like this. – Raven Dreamer Nov 22 '10 at 14:54
@Timothy Wagner -- yes, I'm just looking for a program to draw out the automata. – Raven Dreamer Nov 22 '10 at 14:54

JFlap is a pretty useful tool.

http://www.ii.pw.edu.pl/~ratajcza/csm/grapher/grapher.html

-
Grapher is perfect, thank you. – Raven Dreamer Nov 22 '10 at 15:30
• If you want to construct and test and play with your automata, you might find JFlap usefull.

• If you want to produce images and are familiar with LaTeX then TikZ is great (TikZ automata examples)

• If you want to produce images maybe a vector drawing tool like Inkscape

-
+1 for TikZ automata examples. – user1869 Dec 20 '10 at 20:20

If I were attempting to draw a DFA or NFA, I would probably use Graphviz.

-

GraphPlot[] and GraphPlot3D[] are really nice. :D – J. M. Nov 22 '10 at 23:18