An alternate approach to formal parsing methods

Finite state automata have proven quite useful in the processing of free format input, in that it can be proven that for most grammars, a finite state automata exists to recognize and parse said grammar. In theory, this is easily implemented and understood in the undergraduate software development class. In reality, many undergraduates have trouble with formal parsing methods due to a lack of a formal mathematical background, failure to understand grammars, as well as other reasons. One other problem is that many undergraduate students will also rely on automated parsers during software development, and are then comprised when arriving at work and discovering that no automated parser exists at that site. For these reasons, as well as others, this author tried a different approach to teaching these useful, but often complex, techniques. What follows is a discussion of the method used, as well as the results of that experiment.