Elements Of Automata Theory

Elements of Automata Theory

Automata theory lies at the foundation of computer science, and is vital to a theoretical understanding of how computers work and what constitutes formal methods. This treatise gives a rigorous account of the topic and illuminates its real meaning by looking at the subject in a variety of ways. The first part of the book is organised around notions of rationality and recognisability. The second part deals with relations between words realised by finite automata, which not only exemplifies the automata theory but also illustrates the variety of its methods and its fields of application. Many exercises are included, ranging from those that test the reader, to those that are technical results, to those that extend ideas presented in the text. Solutions or answers to many of these are included in the book.

Elements of Automata Theory

Elements of Computation Theory

The foundation of computer science is built upon the following questions: What is an algorithm? What can be computed and what cannot be computed? What does it mean for a function to be computable? How does computational power depend upon programming constructs? Which algorithms can be considered feasible? For more than 70 years, computer scientists are searching for answers to such qu- tions. Their ingenious techniques used in answering these questions form the theory of computation. Theory of computation deals with the most fundamental ideas of computer s- ence in an abstract but easily understood form. The notions and techniques employed are widely spread across various topics and are found in almost every branch of c- puter science. It has thus become more than a necessity to revisit the foundation, learn the techniques, and apply them with con?dence. Overview and Goals This book is about this solid, beautiful, and pervasive foundation of computer s- ence. It introduces the fundamental notions, models, techniques, and results that form the basic paradigms of computing. It gives an introduction to the concepts and mathematics that computer scientists of our day use to model, to argue about, and to predict the behavior of algorithms and computation. The topics chosen here have shown remarkable persistence over the years and are very much in current use.