Review the code in the scratch repository.
- Note how the parse code can’t just be accomplished with a single pass through the input.
Simplifying Boolean Expressions #
Stuff that obviously simplifies:
We can eliminate double negations
- Not(Not(x)) => x
We can eliminate all literal 0’s or 1’s, unless the expression is just a 0 or 1.
- a+1 => 1
- a+0 => a
- a1 => a
- a0 => 0
We can eliminate duplicate variables or duplicate clauses.
- aba => ab
- a+a => a
- ab+ab => ab
- (a+b)(a+b) => ab
Some other rules
- a!a => 0
- a+!a => 1
And some legal transformations that might help.
- a(b+c) <=> ab+ac
- a+bc <=> (a+b)(a+c)
- !a!b <=> !(a+b)
- !a+!b <=> !(ab)
Let’s build an example #
- Specifically, literal elimination.
Disjunctive Normal Form (DNF) #
- A series of clauses
- Each with a series of variables or negated variables ANDed together.
- The clauses are ORed together.
- Any boolean expression can be expressed in DNF.
- An expression in DNF corresponds to a truth table.
- An expression can be transformed into DNF either algebraically or by repeated evaluation.
