Programming Based Formal Languages And Automata Theory

This textbook introduces formal languages and automata theory for upper-level undergraduate or beginning graduate students. While it contains the traditional mathematical development usually employed in computational theory courses, it is also quite different from many of them. Machines, grammars, and algorithms developed as part of a constructive proof are intended to be rendered as programs. The book is divided into four parts that build on each other. Part I reviews fundamental concepts. It introduces programming in FSM and reviews program design. In addition, it reviews essential mathematical background on sets, relations, and reasoning about infinite sets. Part II starts the study of formal languages and automata theory in earnest with regular languages. It first introduces regular expressions and shows how they are used to write programs that generate words in a regular language. Given that regular expressions generate words, it is only natural to ask how a machine can recognize words in a regular language. This leads to the study of deterministic and nondeterministic finite-state machines. Part III starts the exploration of languages that are not regular with context-free languages. It begins with context-free grammars and pushdown automata to generate and recognize context-free languages, and it ends with a discussion of deterministic pushdown automata and illustrates why these automatons are fundamentally different from nondeterministic pushdown automata. Part IV eventually explores languages that are not context-free, known as context-sensitive languages. It starts by discussing the most powerful automaton known to mankind: the Turing machine. It then moves to grammars for context-sensitive languages, and their equivalence with Turing machines is explored. The book ends with a brief chapter introducing complexity theory and explores the question of determining if a solution to a problem is practical.

A step-by-step development of the theory of automata, languages and computation. Intended for use as the basis of an introductory course at both junior and senior levels, the text is organized so as to allow the design of various courses based on selected material. It features basic models of computation, formal languages and their properties; computability, decidability and complexity; a discussion of modern trends in the theory of automata and formal languages; design of programming languages, including the development of a new programming language; and compiler design, including the construction of a complete compiler. Alexander Meduna uses clear definitions, easy-to-follow proofs and helpful examples to make formerly obscure concepts easy to understand. He also includes challenging exercises and programming projects to enhance the reader's comprehension, and many 'real world' illustrations and applications in practical computer science.

A textbook for a graduate course on formal languages and automata theory, building on prior knowledge of theoretical computer models.

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.

Theory of Automata is designed to serve as a textbook for undergraduate students of B.E, B. Tech. CSE and MCA/IT. It attempts to help students grasp the essential concepts involved in automata theory.

This revised and expanded new edition elucidates the elegance and simplicity of the fundamental theory underlying formal languages and compilation. Retaining the reader-friendly style of the 1st edition, this versatile textbook describes the essential principles and methods used for defining the syntax of artificial languages, and for designing efficient parsing algorithms and syntax-directed translators with semantic attributes. Features: presents a novel conceptual approach to parsing algorithms that applies to extended BNF grammars, together with a parallel parsing algorithm (NEW); supplies supplementary teaching tools at an associated website; systematically discusses ambiguous forms, allowing readers to avoid pitfalls; describes all algorithms in pseudocode; makes extensive usage of theoretical models of automata, transducers and formal grammars; includes concise coverage of algorithms for processing regular expressions and finite automata; introduces static program analysis based on flow equations.

Formal languages provide the theoretical underpinnings for the study of programming languages as well as the foundations for compiler design. They are important in such areas as data transmission and compression, computer networks, etc. This book combines an algebraic approach with algorithmic aspects and decidability results and explores applications both within computer science and in fields where formal languages are finding new applications such as molecular and developmental biology. It contains more than 600 graded exercises. While some are routine, many of the exercises are in reality supplementary material. Although the book has been designed as a text for graduate and upper-level undergraduate students, the comprehensive coverage of the subject makes it suitable as a reference for scientists.

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.

The book is a concise, self-contained and fully updated introduction to automata theory – a fundamental topic of computer sciences and engineering. The material is presented in a rigorous yet convincing way and is supplied with a wealth of examples, exercises and down-to-the earth convincing explanatory notes. An ideal text to a spectrum of one-term courses in computer sciences, both at the senior undergraduate and graduate students.

An Introduction to Formal Languages & Automata provides an excellent presentation of the material that is essential to an introductory theory of computation course. The text was designed to familiarize students with the foundations & principles of computer science & to strengthen the students' ability to carry out formal & rigorous mathematical argument. Employing a problem-solving approach, the text provides students insight into the course material by stressing intuitive motivation & illustration of ideas through straightforward explanations & solid mathematical proofs. By emphasizing learning through problem solving, students learn the material primarily through problem-type illustrative examples that show the motivation behind the concepts, as well as their connection to the theorems & definitions.