![]() This is simply the encoding of the state machine with current and next state, what to read and write and in what direction to move the head. We started with creating a separate worksheet to represent the state table, as shown below. Our goal was to built the Turing machine using formulas only. Every possible calculation! It was first described by Alan Turing in 1936, so before there even were actual computers. Not very efficient, you’ll see later that we need 1832 steps to calculate 3 to the power 3, but still. ![]() This seems a very simple mechanism, but it can be used to simulate every possible calculation a computer can do. This program, with 3 states and 4 transitions, changes the first block of 1’s into blanks and than halts. An example of a very simple Turing program is this: Based on the current symbol of the tape, the Turing machine can change its current state. The strip of tape is infinite and the Turing machine can read and write it, but also maintains an internal state. Please note that automatic calculations are turned off, so if you want to run the machine, you’ll have to do it manually.Īccording to Wikipedia, a Turing machine is a ‘hypothetical device that manipulates symbols on a strip of tape’. ![]() ![]() In this blog post I’ll talk about how we built it, but of course you can also skip all that and just download it and play with it. This year I had even more fun than usual, as Daan van Berkel proposed we build a Turing machine in Excel. We do this every year, drinking beer, talking about programming, and often also, programming. This weekend, I went on a get away with some fellow developers of Devnology. ![]()
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