TM is a Turing Machine Interpreter
----------------------------------

It supports a single list of turing machine commands (in quintuple form)
and a single tape.  A turing machine command list may be entered
interactively or from a file.

It supports 'macros', which are collections of TM commands.  Macros may be
entered interactively or from a file.

TM has a carefully designed user interface, and a VMS-like 'help' utility.


Installing TM on Unix
---------------------

To install TM on Unix, simply run the script 'tm_install.sh'.  Once it has
completed, the executable, 'tm', will have been compiled and moved to the
'work' directory.  This directory will also contain all of the example
files and the TM help file.  After this, simply run 'tm' in the work
directory.


Installing TM on other systems
------------------------------

TM has been written in ANSI C, and should run on any system which supports
that.  You will need to compile the files in the 'source' subdirectory,
move the resulting executable, 'tm', to a working directory, and also move
into that directory the file 'tm.hlp' and any of the example files that
you would like to use.


Documentation
-------------

TM has information which is available during runtime.  At almost every
prompt entering 'help' or '?' will result in the presentation of a list of
of items for which help is available.  Enter the listed item at the
'subtopic?>' prompt to get information on it.  To leave the help facility,
press 'Enter' at the subtopic prompt.

'tm_manual.txt' is the TM manual.


About 'getcmd.c' and 'help.c'
-----------------------------

getcmd.c and help.c can be useful in other applications.

The routines in getcmd.c can be used in any C program to implement a command
processor.  getcmd.c does not depend in any way on TM.  See the code for how it
is used.

The routines in help.c can be used to implement a help utility that makes use
of VMS-style help files.  help.c does not depend in any way on TM.  Read the
comments at the top of help.c.


*******************************************************************************
TM has been written by

        David S. Woodruff,  Suffolk University,  Math and Computer Science

                        email: davewoodr@aol.com

Any and all comments would be appreciated.

Disclaimer:  TM was ONLY written to demonstrate and test simple turing machine
models in an educational setting.  It is not meant to be used in any serious 
or critical applications.  Anyone who copies and uses it does so at their own 
risk.