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Knowledge of automata theory and formal languages is crucial for understanding human-computer interaction, as well as for understanding the various processes that take place when manipulating knowledge if that knowledge is, indeed, expressed as sentences written in a suitably formalized language. In particular, it is at the basis of the theory of parsing, which plays an important role in language translation, compiler construction, and knowledge manipulation in general.Presenting basic notions and fundamental results, this concise textbook is structured on the basis of a correspondence that exists between classes of automata and classes of languages. That correspondence is established by the fact that the recognition and the manipulation of sentences in a given class of languages can be done by an automaton in the corresponding class of automata. Four central chapters center on: finite automata and regular languages; pushdown automata and context-free languages; linear bounded automata and context-sensitive languages; and Turing machines and type 0 languages. The book also examines decidable and undecidable problems with emphasis on the case for context-free languages.Topics and features:Provides theorems, examples, and exercises to clarify automata-languages correspondencesPresents some fundamental techniques for parsing both regular and context-free languagesClassifies subclasses of decidable problems, avoiding focus on the theory of complexityExamines finite-automata minimalization and characterization of their behavior using regular expressionsIllustrates how to derive grammars of context-free languages in Chomsky and Greibach normal formsOffers supplementary material on counter machines, stack automata, and abstract language familiesThis highly useful, varied text/reference is suitable for undergraduate and graduatecourses on automata theory and formal languages, and assumes no prior exposure to these topics nor any training in mathematics or logic.Alberto Pettorossi is professor of theoretical computer science at the University of Rome Tor Vergata, Rome, Italy.

This book is intended for the students who are pursuing courses in B.Tech/B.E (CSE/IT), M.Tech/M.E (CSE/IT), MCA, M.Sc (CS/IT). The book covers different crucial theoretical aspects such as of Automata Theory, Formal Language Theory, Computability Theory and Computational Complexity Theory and their applications. This book can be used as a text or reference book for a one-semester course in theory of computation or automata theory.

This is the first book to offer key theoretical topics and terminology concerning regulated grammars and automata. They are the most important language-defining devices that work under controls represented by additional mathematical mechanisms. Key topics include formal language theory, grammatical regulation, grammar systems, erasing rules, parallelism, word monoids, regulated and unregulated automata and control languages. The book explores how the information utilized in computer science is most often represented by formal languages defined by appropriate formal devices. It provides both algorithms and a variety of real-world applications, allowing readers to understand both theoretical concepts and fundamentals. There is a special focus on applications to scientific fields including biology, linguistics and informatics. This book concludes with case studies and future trends for the field. Regulated Grammars and Automata is designed as a reference for researchers and professionals working in computer science and mathematics who deal with language processors. Advanced-level students in computer science and mathematics will also find this book a valuable resource as a secondary textbook or reference.

This classic book on formal languages, automata theory, and computational complexity has been updated to present theoretical concepts in a concise and straightforward manner with the increase of hands-on, practical applications. With eBooks you can: search for key concepts, words and phrases make highlights and notes as you study share your notes with friends eBooks are downloaded to your computer and accessible either offline through the Bookshelf (available as a free download), available online and also via the iPad and Android apps. Upon purchase, you'll gain instant access to this eBook. Time limit The eBooks products do not have an expiry date. You will continue to access your digital ebook products whilst you have your Bookshelf installed.

This book contains a collection of survey papers in the areas of algorithms, lan­ guages and complexity, the three areas in which Professor Ronald V. Book has made significant contributions. As a fonner student and a co-author who have been influenced by him directly, we would like to dedicate this book to Professor Ronald V. Book to honor and celebrate his sixtieth birthday. Professor Book initiated his brilliant academic career in 1958, graduating from Grinnell College with a Bachelor of Arts degree. He obtained a Master of Arts in Teaching degree in 1960 and a Master of Arts degree in 1964 both from Wesleyan University, and a Doctor of Philosophy degree from Harvard University in 1969, under the guidance of Professor Sheila A. Greibach. Professor Book's research in discrete mathematics and theoretical com­ puter science is reflected in more than 150 scientific publications. These works have made a strong impact on the development of several areas of theoretical computer science. A more detailed summary of his scientific research appears in this volume separately.

The study of formal languages and of related families of automata has long been at the core of theoretical computer science. Until recently, the main reasons for this centrality were connected with the specification and analy­ sis of programming languages, which led naturally to the following ques­ tions. How might a grammar be written for such a language? How could we check whether a text were or were not a well-formed program generated by that grammar? How could we parse a program to provide the structural analysis needed by a compiler? How could we check for ambiguity to en­ sure that a program has a unique analysis to be passed to the computer? This focus on programming languages has now been broadened by the in­ creasing concern of computer scientists with designing interfaces which allow humans to communicate with computers in a natural language, at least concerning problems in some well-delimited domain of discourse. The necessary work in computational linguistics draws on studies both within linguistics (the analysis of human languages) and within artificial intelligence. The present volume is the first textbook to combine the topics of formal language theory traditionally taught in the context of program­ ming languages with an introduction to issues in computational linguistics. It is one of a series, The AKM Series in Theoretical Computer Science, designed to make key mathematical developments in computer science readily accessible to undergraduate and beginning graduate students.

Dieses Lehrbuch bietet eine prägnante und leicht verständliche Einführung in die Gebiete Formale Sprachen und Automatentheorie für das Informatik-Grundstudium an Fachhochschulen und Universitäten. Die behandelten Themen Formale Sprachen, Grammatikformalismen, endliche Automaten, Kellerautomaten und Turingmaschinen bilden die zentralen Grundlagen für das Verständnis wichtiger Informatikkonzepte wie die Spezifikation von Programmiersprachen, das Übersetzen von Programmen oder die Verarbeitung natürlicher Sprache, d.h. für die Formalisierung und algorithmische Behandlung von Problemen, die durch den Computer gelöst werden. Ein neuer Abschnitt ist der aktuellen Technologie XML gewidmet und gibt insbesondere einen ersten Einblick in XML-Schemata, dem neuen Spezifikationsstandard für XML-Dokumente.

This book is a revised edition of the monograph which appeared under the same title in the series Research Notes in Theoretical Computer Science, Pit­ man, in 1986. In addition to a general effort to improve typography, English, and presentation, the main novelty of this second edition is the integration of some new material. Part of it is mine (mostly jointly with coauthors). Here is brief guide to these additions. I have augmented the account of categorical combinatory logic with a description of the confluence properties of rewriting systems of categor­ ical combinators (Hardin, Yokouchi), and of the newly developed cal­ culi of explicit substitutions (Abadi, Cardelli, Curien, Hardin, Levy, and Rios), which are similar in spirit to the categorical combinatory logic, but are closer to the syntax of A-calculus (Section 1.2). The study of the full abstraction problem for PCF and extensions of it has been enriched with a new full abstraction result: the model of sequential algorithms is fully abstract with respect to an extension of PCF with a control operator (Cartwright, Felleisen, Curien). An order­ extensional model of error-sensitive sequential algorithms is also fully abstract for a corresponding extension of PCF with a control operator and errors (Sections 2.6 and 4.1). I suggest that sequential algorithms lend themselves to a decomposition of the function spaces that leads to models of linear logic (Lamarche, Curien), and that connects sequentiality with games (Joyal, Blass, Abramsky) (Sections 2.1 and 2.6).

This book is based on notes for a master's course given at Queen Mary, University of London, in the 1998/9 session. Such courses in London are quite short, and the course consisted essentially of the material in the?rst three chapters, together with a two-hour lecture on connections with group theory. Chapter 5 is a considerably expanded version of this. For the course, the main sources were the books by Hopcroft and Ullman ([20]), by Cohen ([4]), and by Epstein et al. ([7]). Some use was also made of a later book by Hopcroft and Ullman ([21]). The ulterior motive in the?rst three chapters is to give a rigorous proof that various notions of recursively enumerable language are equivalent. Three such notions are considered. These are: generated by a type 0 grammar, recognised by a Turing machine (deterministic or not) and de?ned by means of a Godel ¨ numbering, having de?ned “recursively enumerable” for sets of natural numbers. It is hoped that this has been achieved without too many ar- ments using complicated notation. This is a problem with the entire subject, and it is important to understand the idea of the proof, which is often quite simple. Two particular places that are heavy going are the proof at the end of Chapter 1 that a language recognised by a Turing machine is type 0, and the proof in Chapter 2 that a Turing machine computable function is partial recursive.

State of books on compilers The book collects and condenses the experience of years of teaching compiler courses and doing research on formal language theory, on compiler and l- guage design, and to a lesser extent on natural language processing. In the turmoil of information technology developments, the subject of the book has kept the same fundamental principles over half a century, and its relevance for theory and practice is as important as in the early days. This state of a?airs of a topic, which is central to computer science and is based on consolidated principles, might lead us to believe that the acc- panying textbooks are by now consolidated, much as the classical books on mathematics. In fact this is rather not true: there exist?ne books on the mathematical aspects of language and automata theory, but the best books on translators are sort of encyclopaedias of algorithms, design methods, and practical know-how used in compiler design. Indeed a compiler is a mic- cosm,featuring avarietyofaspectsrangingfromalgorithmicwisdomto CPU andmemoryexploitation.Asaconsequencethetextbookshavegrowninsize, and compete with respect to their coverage of the last developments on p- gramming languages, processor architectures and clever mappings from the former to the latter.

A Concise Introduction to Languages, Machines and Logic provides an accessible introduction to three key topics within computer science: formal languages, abstract machines and formal logic. Written in an easy-to-read, informal style, this textbook assumes only a basic knowledge of programming on the part of the reader. The approach is deliberately non-mathematical, and features: - Clear explanations of formal notation and jargon, - Extensive use of examples to illustrate algorithms and proofs, - Pictorial representations of key concepts, - Chapter opening overviews providing an introduction and guidance to each topic, - End-of-chapter exercises and solutions, - Offers an intuitive approach to the topics. This reader-friendly textbook has been written with undergraduates in mind and will be suitable for use on course covering formal languages, formal logic, computability and automata theory. It will also make an excellent supplementary text for courses on algorithm complexity and compilers.

A collection of articles by leading experts in theoretical computer science, this volume commemorates the 75th birthday of Professor Rani Siromoney, one of the pioneers in the field in India. The articles span the vast range of areas that Professor Siromoney has worked in or influenced, including grammar systems, picture languages and new models of computation.

The need for a comprehensive survey-type exposition on formal languages and related mainstream areas of computer science has been evident for some years. If! the early 1970s, when the book Formal Languages by the second­ quite feasible to write a comprehensive mentioned editor appeared, it was still book with that title and include also topics of current research interest. This would not be possible anymore. A standard-sized book on formal languages would either have to stay on a fairly low level or else be specialized and restricted to some narrow sector of the field. The setup becomes drastically different in a collection of contributions, where the best authorities in the world join forces, each of them concentrat­ ing on their own areas of specialization. The present three-volume Handbook constitutes such a unique collection. In these three volumes we present the current state of the art in formal language theory. We were most satisfied with the enthusiastic response given to our request for contributions by specialists representing various subfields. The need for a Handbook of Formal Languages was in many answers expressed in different ways: as an easily accessible his­ torical reference, a general source of information, an overall course-aid, and a compact collection of material for self-study. We are convinced that the final result will satisfy such various needs. The theory of formal languages constitutes the stem or backbone of the field of science now generally known as theoretical computer science.

The need for a comprehensive survey-type exposition on formal languages and related mainstream areas of computer science has been evident for some years. In the early 1970s, when the book Formal Languages by the second­ mentioned editor appeared, it was still quite feasible to write a comprehensive book with that title and include also topics of current research interest. This would not be possible anymore. A standard-sized book on formal languages would either have to stay on a fairly low level or else be specialized and restricted to some narrow sector of the field. The setup becomes drastically different in a collection of contributions, where the best authorities in the world join forces, each of them concentrat­ ing on their own areas of specialization. The present three-volume Handbook constitutes such a unique collection. In these three volumes we present the current state of the art in formallanguage theory. We were most satisfied with the enthusiastic response given to our request for contributions by specialists representing various subfields. The need for a Handbook of Formal Languages was in many answers expressed in different ways: as an easily accessible his­ torical reference, a general source of information, an overall course-aid, and a compact collection of material for self-study. We are convinced that the final result will satisfy such various needs.

The research and development of multi-dimensional pattern recognition, scene analysis, computer vision and image processing have progressed very rapidly in recent years. Among various models employed for pattern representation and analysis, the array grammar has attracted more and more attention because it has several advantages over others.This special volume, perhaps the first time ever in the literature, is a collection of 14 papers by prominent professionals and experts, aimed at promoting array grammars, patterns and recognizers. They are grouped in the following categories: (1) Array grammars and pattern generation, (2) Array pattern recognizers, (3) Coordinate grammars and L-systems, and (4) Hexagonal grids, tilings and encryption.