Logic has recently become a basic modelling tool alongside mathematics, and the two styles of modelling are beginning to combine. Thus the need for logical inference models, particularly those that involve quantitative methods, is growing. As generated in operations research and computer science, the methods of combinatorial optimization can be powerful tools for understanding and solving logical inference problems which arise in Artificial Intelligence (AI) and other fields.

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 16th International Conference on Foundations of Software Technology and Theoretical Computer Science, FST&TCS '96, held in Hyderabad, India, in December 1996.
The volume presents 28 revised full papers selected from a total of 98 submissions; also included are four invited contributions. The papers are organized in topical sections on computational geometry, process algebras, program semantics, algorithms, rewriting and equational-temporal logics, complexity theory, and type theory.