Most Helpful Customer Reviews
66 of 77 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent as a reference; pathetic as a textbook, August 13, 2000
This review is from: Introduction to Automata Theory, Languages and Computation (Addison-Wesley series in computer science) (Hardcover)
There is, strictly speaking, no in-between for this book: it's either 5 stars or zero stars depending on the intended use. It's very simple: Don't use it if _____, and do use it if ____. Do NOT even THINK of buying this book: 1. If this is going to be your first brush with formal languages and the theory of computation. 2. If you need to get motivated to learn the subject, and you need that "first grasp" on it. 3. If you're taking a first course in the subject, and if you have an IQ below 130! On the other hand, You MUST buy this book: 1. If you already have some background, and you want a larger picture. 2. If you will often need an authoritative source for proofs etc. 3. If you need a reference for formalizing concepts touched on elsewhere.
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18 of 19 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Five-star reference, one-star textbook, October 5, 1998
By A Customer
This review is from: Introduction to Automata Theory, Languages and Computation (Addison-Wesley series in computer science) (Hardcover)
This slim volume is the standard reference for research in automata theory, languages, and computation (especially regular and context-free languages). For that, it gets five stars. As a textbook for students, however, it is dense, uneven, and confusing throughout. Generations of novice computer scientists have been soured forever on theory by being forced to endure this book in their undergraduate- and graduate-level theory courses. Conclusion: buy this book and keep it on your shelf, with the other essential references, but if you want to *learn* the material, look elsewhere -- for example, Michael Sipser's excellent new textbook, _Introduction to the Theory of Computation_.
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12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A book for computer scientists, April 14, 1999
By A Customer
This review is from: Introduction to Automata Theory, Languages and Computation (Addison-Wesley series in computer science) (Hardcover)
A predecessor of the book was published in 1969 titled "Formal Languages and Their Relation to Automata." It was re-written in 1979. This is a classical textbook for last year undergraduate students or postgraduate students in computer science, especially those who are going to deal with computer languages, artificial intellegence, compiler design, computational complexity and so on. One of the author, J. E. Hopcroft, is the Turing Award winner of 1987. I have both versions of the book and I'd like recommend every computer science student spend some time on reading it.
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