Mechanism Debugging: Instructions.
The mechanism is a finite state machine. If the value (in base-36) of the first character of the serial number is odd, the automaton has 5 states, otherwise - 6. Label the states q0, q1, ...
State transitions consist of:
- Initial state q(t),
- Input x,
- Final state q(t+1),
- Output y.
This automaton is generated by the following rule:
- On input x0: qi transitions to q(i+z0(i)).
- On input x1: qi transitions to q(i+z1(i)).
- On input x2: qi transitions to q(|i+z2(i)|).
The functions zi are defined on the last page of the instructions.
If a state with that number does not exist, then such a transition does not exist either.
The output of the transition qi → qj is determined as follows:
- If i<j, output is y0,
- If i>j, output is y1,
- If i=j, output is y2.
Count the number of uses for the elements of the set of final states, the set of inputs, and the set of outputs. Assign them binary representations such that:
- Elements that are not used must be completely ignored.
- Representations within a set cannot repeat.
- Representations must have the minimum possible length. Furthermore, within a set, all representations must be of the same length.
- The more frequently an element is used, the fewer ones should be in its representation.
- In case of equal usage counts, elements with a smaller index get the smallest possible numbers (when converting the binary representation to decimal).
Strict adherence to these rules will yield the
one and only correct representation of the set elements.