Introducing the Theory of Computation is the ideal text for any undergraduate, introductory course on formal languages, automata, and computability. The author provides a concise, yet complete introduction to the important models of finite automata, grammars, and Turing machines, as well as undecidability and the basics of complexity theory. Numerous problems and programming exercises, varying in level of difficulty, round out each chapter and allow students to test themselves on key topics. Answers to selected exercises are included as an appendix and a complete instructor s solutions manual is available on the text s web site.
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
John M. Hunt,
This review is from: Introducing the Theory of Computation (Hardcover)
I am going to start by suggested that there are two types of people when it comes to judging books on automata - those who think that mathematical notation makes a subject easy to understand due to its clarity and succinctness and those who are not helped appreciably in their understanding by mathematical notation. Even though I teach computer science at the college level, I am one of the later people. I find the overwhelming majority of my students are among the later as well.
I am teaching an automata course for the second time this fall. While I used the Goddard book my first time around I wanted to make sure I wasn't missing anything, so I spent the summer reading automata textbooks. Now I'm going to use the Goddard book again because it's the only one I've found that I think will make sense to my students. Goddard manages to explain automata and grammars in English and then provide the minimal amount of mathematical notation that's required to deal with the field. This is the only book I've read that manages this. Just go ahead click on the look inside and look at the first pages of the book. They are quite different than other automata textbooks. It's not a perfect book. The sections on complexity (N <-> NP) are too short. It makes no real effort to explain parsing. I would prefer using the Chomsky hierarchy as an organizing technique rather than an afterthought. But, for the non-math reader it is far the best for the basics of automata theory that I've been able to find. Even if this book is not assigned for your course you may want to read it to get an understanding of the topics.
0 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Needed it,
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This review is from: Introducing the Theory of Computation (Hardcover)
There's not too much I can say about this book other than my Professor required that I buy it. That being said, it's fairly understandable considering the subject it covers.
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Inside This Book
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First Sentence:
The most basic model of a computer is the finite automaton. Read the first page Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
exercise solutions, pumping lemma, distinguishable strings, nullable variables, balanced brackets, computation string, unary alphabet, tape alphabet, recursive languages, leftmost derivation, start variable, subset construction, accept state, derivation tree, satisfying assignment, binary strings, dominating set, infinite tape, lexical analyzer Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Chomsky Normal Form Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Surprise Me!
The most basic model of a computer is the finite automaton. Read the first page Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
exercise solutions, pumping lemma, distinguishable strings, nullable variables, balanced brackets, computation string, unary alphabet, tape alphabet, recursive languages, leftmost derivation, start variable, subset construction, accept state, derivation tree, satisfying assignment, binary strings, dominating set, infinite tape, lexical analyzer Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Chomsky Normal Form Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Surprise Me!
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