Conventional representations of Turing machines often overwhelm students of computability theory and obscure fundamental computational ideas. Varphi is a domain-specific language designed to streamline Turing machine specification with a minimalist syntax and integrated debugging tools. In preliminary classroom trials involving 184 participants tackling deliberately challenging tasks, 88% of students successfully completed them using Varphi, highlighting the tool’s potential utility. This paper presents a technical overview of Varphi and analyzes its pedagogical benefits.
