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sigma star
(discuss.tchncs.de)
Post funny things about programming here! (Or just rant about your favourite programming language.)
sigma star.
if you haven't heard about theory of computation, let me define some keywords:
now, sigma has powers. Σ² is set of all strings of length 2. e.g.: {aa, ab, bb, ...}. you can generalise this to Σ^n.
Σ* is union of all powers of sigma. i.e., Σ¹ + Σ² + ...
so, a language is basically a subset of Σ*.
as for why theory of computation even exists, you basically try to define what a computer can/cannot do.
and you try to mathematically define a computer. then you try to define what a language is(in case of programming , you need it to form languages and compilers). hence the need for this.