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AutoFSM - Automated Finite State Machine

AutoFSM is an add-on package to AutoGen. AutoGen actually includes AutoFSM because it uses its functionality itself. When you install AutoGen, the Finite State Machine templates will be installed in ${datadir}/autogen/fsm*.tpl.

Finite state machines can be constructed in a variety of ways. Some of them can be assisted with generated text and others cannot. Or, at least, they cannot be generated very well. What can be generated very well are the transition tables derived from the machine definition.

Here is the list of attributes that various flavors of software finite state machines may have.

Transition Event Detection

There is no way to select among these detection methods. ``state-independent'' is assumed, but you have ``adjustments'' available to you when your transition handling code is invoked.

state-independent: If the transition event can be recognized without reference to the current machine state, it is state-independent. If you cannot determine the next transition event without knowing the state, then it is state-dependent.
state-dependent: Generally, transition tables are not very helpful for a state-dependent machine.
combination: Very often, you can mostly determine the transition event independently of the current state. For these occasions, this Finite State Machine generator will allow you to ``adjust'' the state during transition processing.

FSM Type

The finite state machine may be either the master, driving the other parts of the program, or act as a subroutine keeping track of state between calls. Consequently, the type attribute may be set to:

looping: If the machine processes transitions until it reaches a terminal state (error or done).
stepping: If the FSM code must only process a single transition and then return.

implementation method

AutoFSM gives you a choice of implementations. You can specify which with the method attribute. If you omit the attribute or specify ``none'', then only a header file containing a transition table will be produced.

callout: This method will use a callout table instead of a switch statement to implement the machine.
case: This is the alternate implementation method.
none: Choosing this method suppresses the prototype implementation.

AutoFSM supports all four variations of the state-independent or nearly-state-independent transition machines, plus the transition table only output. To use this, you must set up a Finite State Machine AutoGen definitions file that defines:

a list of events,
a list of states, and
a list of transitions.

The events and states are simply names you provide for the transition types and processing states. The transition entries are entries that specify an initial state, the result state and a transition type. By default, the transition type is named after the original state and the transition event. However, you may also specify a name in order to allow several different transitions to be handled with the same code.

The output is currently a set of defines, a transition table suitable for compiling into a C or C++ program, and, optionally, a prototype implementation. There is nothing to restrict output in another language, there just happens not to be any templates to produce other languages at the moment. Watch this space if you have interest in finite state machines in other languages.

Here is an example of a case method machine, and a usage page for a description of the FSM attributes.