Introduction to Automata Theory, Languages, and Computation: AND Introduction to Programming Using SML | 
| Author: John E. Hopcroft
Publisher: Addison Wesley
Category: Book
This item is no longer available
Avg. Customer Rating:  42 reviews
Format: Import
Media: Paperback
Edition: 2
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 3
ISBN: 0582843081
EAN: 9780582843080
ASIN: 0582843081
Publication Date: July 29, 2003
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| Customer Reviews: Read 37 more reviews...
 Advanced? First Edition Only of 1979 December 11, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
My first exposure to Automata Theory backs to 1992, as a senior undergrad textbook for that course, which was mandatory and a prerequisite to the Compilers Course. (No student could take them together unless Automata was repeated). Although I got the highest grade among over 80 students, but I was not getting enough comprehension from the class, as it should be. I admit it was due to the complexity and sophistication of that text, since this was the first course that 100% dedicated to computational theory; taking into account it is BS in Computer Science or COMPUTATIONAL Science.
In my MS work, the required text was By Sipser, but the instructor was giving material that was not in this text. I returned back to Hopcroft/Ullman 1979 text to find the exact material given in the class setting. It was the definitive resource, period.
I purchased the 2nd Ed, 2000, Hopcroft/Ullman/Mitwani; it was simpler than the 1st Ed. and easy going, along with some select exercises were solved in Ullman's page at Stanford. But it looked to me that it is commercial-directed more that scientific- and mathematic-oriented.
If you visit Ullman's page you will see solutions to select exercises from the 3rd Ed.; solutions to the 2nd Ed. were removed or no longer published. Why?
In my own research work, I needed some material from Automat Theory, I no longer have my 1st Ed. copy, so I just purchased a new one.
The bottom line: If you are going to have some future work in Automata and Computational theory, you may grab the 3rd Ed. and/or 2nd Ed. to star out, but for sure you should have the 1st Ed. on your shelf.
 The best theoretical computer science book out there. June 25, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
This book is a one stop solution to your theoretical computer science needs (at least, as an introduction). If you're interested in language theory, deterministic / non deterministic finite state automata design, grammars and regular languages, computational complexity (temporal and spatial complexity), this the book for you. The formal notation used in the book is not the heaviest ever seen for this kind of subject, so it remains comprehensible (assumed it's not your first exposition to this discipline). I found it particularly interesting starting from chapter 8, when it covers turing machines, indecidibility in chapter 9 and intractability in chapter 10.
All in all, it's a good introduction to these concepts. I give it 4 stars because some proofs could have been easier, but this is not a big problem. The P and NP classes of problems are wonderfully explained. We are speaking about a book every computer scientist out there should have on his/her shelf. Those who consider this book extremely hard and difficult is because of their lack of fundamental knowledge in computer science. Of course, this is not the first book you should read on the subject. But be assured, this book will give you what it promises: a good knowledge about languages theory, indecidibility and intractability of problems.
Very nice book May 15, 2008
I read this book from cover to cover, not because it was required by the Formal Languages course that I took, but because it is a very good read. This book gives all the necessary details in every theorem that it proves, which can be considered both a good and a bad thing, depending on your level of knowledge of the subject. I personally believe it is a good thing, because after reading any proof in this book you do not feel skeptical if it works or not, like it can be after reading a proof that skips lots of steps.
I haven't used their online resources, and I didn't do many problems from this book, because the professor teaching the course came up with problems of his own. However, from what I've seen, they have a very reasonable collection of problems suited for self-study. Every well established field has a list of standard problem, and Language Theory is no exception. The problems in this book certainly cover most of the standard ones. Please, also be aware that although this book is a good read, it is not necessary an easy read - be prepared to invest considerable amount of time into this book.
I cannot give this book 5 stars simply because I do not think it is much better than previous editions. As a matter of fact, I think it is worse. I did not have a very close look at previous editions, but I know for a fact that they were more rigorous and formal and covered more topics. As a result of that, they were less suited for teaching an introductory course, but some of the topics they studied there are really nice. From what I've heard about previous editions though, it seems that they described several open problems, that are no longer open. So I'd suggest getting this new edition, simply because it has more contemporary information.
Some people write in their review that this book requires solid background in the area it covers. I respectfully disagree - I had little to none background in Language Theory and Complexity Theory prior to taking this course and (consequently) starting to read this book; however, I did very well in the course and enjoyed it very much. Of course, I was lucky to have an excellent professor teaching that course. If good books came with good professors that would be a killer package, but unfortunately they don't.
I have not read any other books in this field, so I have nothing to compare with, but all in all, for me it worked great and if you have a good professor and are passionate about the subject, I'm sure this book won't be a miss.
 extremely confusing as a beginners textbook March 12, 2008
This was used as a 3rd/4th year computer theory course at my university. For the most part the book was only used for homework problems where we got help from the TA and the professor had detailed slides. But from the times I tried reading the book to understand some problems it was literally like trying to read something in a different language. This book makes no attempt to make things understandable.
A Butchered Classic September 28, 2007
5 out of 5 found this review helpful
I've heard that the first edition of this book is a classic. Reading the second edition, I can kind of see that -- occasionally there will be a stretch of 5 pages or so that is wonderfully clear, concise, and informative.
But overall, this edition is a disappointment. The explanations tend to be mechanical and unhelpful, and are sometimes confused or just incorrect. New sections on mathematical foundations and applications have been added, but there isn't really adequate space devoted to covering either topic, and the results are so rushed and lacking in context that I can't see those sections being useful to anyone who would need them in the first place. Finally, this edition needs to be proofread for correctness! It contains numerous mistakes, some of them in the presentations of key proofs.
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