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
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 mathematic