Formal Languages and Computation: Models and Their Applications

ISBN-13: 9781466513457 / Angielski / Twarda / 2014 / 316 str.

Alexander Meduna

Opis

Formal Languages and Computation: Models and Their Applications gives a clear, comprehensive introduction to formal language theory and its applications in computer science. It covers all rudimental topics concerning formal languages and their models, especially grammars and automata, and sketches the basic ideas underlying the theory of computation, including computability, decidability, and computational complexity. Emphasizing the relationship between theory and application, the book describes many real-world applications, including computer science engineering techniques for language processing and their implementation.

• Covers the "theory of formal languages" and their models, including all essential concepts and properties
• Explains how language models underlie "language processors"
• Pays a special attention to "programming language analyzers," such as "scanners" and "parsers," based on four language models regular expressions, finite automata, context-free grammars, and pushdown automata
• Discusses the mathematical notion of a "Turing machine" as a universally accepted formalization of the intuitive notion of a procedure
• Reviews the general "theory of computation," particularly "computability" and "decidability"
• Considers problem-deciding algorithms in terms of their "computational complexity" measured according to time and space requirements
• Points out that some problems are decidable in principle, but they are, in fact, "intractable problems" for absurdly high computational requirements of the algorithms that decide them

In short, this book represents a theoretically oriented treatment of formal languages and their models with a focus on their applications. It introduces all formalisms concerning them with enough rigors to make all results quite clear and valid. Every complicated mathematical passage is preceded by its intuitive explanation so that even the most complex parts of the book are easy to grasp. After studying this book, both student and professional should be able to understand the fundamental theory of formal languages and computation, write language processors, and confidently follow most advanced books on the subject."

Spis treści

Introduction: Mathematical Background. Formal Languages and Rewriting Systems. Regular Languages and Their Models: Models for Regular Languages and their Applications in Lexical Analysis. Properties of Regular Languages. Context-Free Languages and Their Models: Models for Context-Free Languages and their Applications in Syntax Analysis. Properties of Context-Free Languages. Turing Machines and Computation: Turing Machines and Their Variants. Applications of Turing Machines: Theory of Computation. Turing Machines and General Grammars. Conclusion: Concluding and Bibliographical Remarks.

O autorze

Meduna, Alexander