Interactive Regex Equivalence & String Generator

Live Demo: https://mohit-lakra.github.io/TAFL-Project/

A research-inspired Automata Theory studio for comparing two regular expressions, inspecting the strings they accept, and presenting counter-examples with academic polish.

📁 Repository Layout

TAFL-Project
├── README.md
├── .github/
│   └── workflows/
│       └── pages.yml
└── public/
    ├── index.html
    └── assets/
        ├── css/
        │   └── custom.css
        ├── images/
        │   ├── architecture.svg
        │   └── ui-glimpse.svg
        └── js/
            ├── main.js
            ├── components/
            │   └── ui.js
            ├── core/
            │   ├── generator.js
            │   ├── parser.js
            │   └── verification.js
            └── data/
                └── examples.js

🎨 Visual Overview

✨ Experience Highlights

• Scholarly Interface – a dark, minimalist dashboard with thoughtful typography, curated spacing, and status cards that feel lab-ready.
• Dual Perspectives – review the strings each expression accepts while a dedicated status panel summarizes the verdict and counter-example.
• Animated Verification Sweep – a pulse ticker plus stack-by-stack length bars show exactly how the checker progresses, and everything flashes red the moment a mismatch appears.
• Curated Gallery – six handpicked regex pairs (half equivalent, half not) for quick demonstrations via the “Generate Example” control.
• Storytelling Friendly – descriptions stay plain-language so the app shines in lectures, demos, or self-study sessions alike.

🔍 What You Can Explore

• Do two expressions actually represent the same language? The verdict card answers instantly and shows the first witness string when they differ.
• Which concrete strings does each regex admit? Scroll through generated lists (bounded to length 5) with lengths labeled and ε displayed explicitly.
• Need a rapid illustration? Load a curated example to demonstrate optional prefixes, alternating patterns, or contrasting terminals.

🚀 Using the App

1. Open the live demo or launch public/index.html locally.
2. Enter expressions over {a, b, ε}; use the calculator palette to insert tokens without breaking concentration.
3. Click Analyze & Verify to populate both string panels and receive the equivalence verdict.
4. Curious for inspiration? Tap Generate Example to cycle through the built-in teaching set.

📚 Built-in Example Stories

Title	Focus
Synchronous Blocks	Optional ε versus pure (ab)* repetition.
Optional Prefix	Distinguishing a voluntary leading a from a combined union.
All Binary Strings	Showing nested stars can match `(a
Terminal Symbol Contrast	Highlighting the effect of ending in a vs b.
Order of Blocks	Comparing a*b* with b*a* to discuss ordering.
Alternating Patterns	Contrasting (ab)* and (ba)* phase shifts.

💡 Why It Exists

In Theory of Automata classrooms, students often ask whether two elegant-looking regexes are secretly the same. Rather than wave hands, this tool reveals strings, counter-examples, and curated commentary side by side, helping bridge intuition and formal reasoning.

🏁 Run It Locally

1. git clone https://github.com/<your-username>/TAFL-Project.git
2. cd TAFL-Project
3. Open public/index.html in your browser – no build step required.

Enjoy exploring regular languages with a tool that feels as elegant as the concepts it showcases.