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Title: Introduction to Automata Theory, Languages, and Computation (2nd Edition) by John E. Hopcroft, Rajeev Motwani, Jeffrey D. Ullman ISBN: 0201441241 Publisher: Addison-Wesley Publishing Pub. Date: 14 November, 2000 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $97.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.71
Rating: 4
Summary: Easier to understand, but not as completed as the first.
Comment: Having studied the Formal Language and Automata Theory (FLAT) using the first edition of the text, I think this 2nd edition is much easier to read and to understand. This is a very good thing because the 1st edition was a bit difficult to follow, especially for those who aren't familiar with the subject already. (As stated in the preface of the 2nd ed. that the 1st was written for graduate students who already have the idea of what the subject is all about).
Also, I found the approach "Example->Informal Def->Formal Def->Proof" very good, and should be used in more textbook. This way, the readers will have the idea of what they're going to study, what for, and why, instead of pointlessly studying something, forget it, and realize how important it is later (this happened to a lot of people, though). A lot of useful and interesting Theorems were also introduced.
However, there're things missing in this edition. For example, the Greibach Normal Form (GNF) for the Context-Free Grammars, which was covered in the 1st edition. I'd talked to the professor who taught the FLAT class I took, and he doesn't seem to like this edition either. He said something like, it is of course easier to understand, but something had been left out. So, he still prefered the 1st edition. (Well, he is a very good researcher in Computation Theory and is now writing a book on Term Rewriting System, another model of computation, which will be published by Springer-Verlag. Don't know when, though. So, this edition is probably too easy for him :-)
I, on the other hand, think that this 2nd edition is good on its own ground. It made the subject of Computation Theory easier and more accessible to wider range of people. (You still have to "think" and have Math knowledge anyway).
Also check out Michael Sipser's book on Computation Theory. I think that one is somewhat better than this one. It uses lesser Math (don't get me wrong, I like Math), and clearer explanations.
Also look for the first edition in Library, used book stores, or wherever you can. That one is definitely a classic, and cannot be replaced by the 2nd edition. I agree with one reviewer here, so bad that this was a new edition, rather than a new book....
Rating: 4
Summary: Good, but the first edn was Great
Comment: This is a good book - but as a revision of a much-revered classic of
the field, it's a bit of a disappointment.
Hopcroft & Ullman wrote the classic text way back in 1969, and then
revised it in 1979. It was pretty much the standard text the world
over for an introduction to the theory of computation.
But over the last two decades, more and more people have been studying
Computer science, and many of them have no time for theory and
formalism and all the 'dry stuff' ..........
The authors point out that because of such reasons and also because
nowadays there's little research in the theory of computation per se,
and more in its applications, they've written a book to cater to today's
students.
Which, in other words, means they've simplified the presentation, tried
to provide intuition whenever possible, given lots more examples and
done away with some of the more difficult material.
This approach puts the book into direct competition with Michael Sipser's
excellent 'Introduction to the theory of computation', a contest it
cannot win, though it might be a respectable second.
Almost all topics are motivated by giving examples of how they're
related to applications in the 'real world', and similar to
Sipser's 'proof idea' approach, the authors first present a topic
informally and then formally, thus gently leading the reader to
the formal proofs.
This book sets out to do pretty much the same as what Sipser's book
does, ie to provide a readable, user-friendly introduction to the
theory of computation with lots of examples and intuitive approach
to problems wherever possible, but Sipser's already done an
'optimal' job.
Moreover, this book tries to be 'chatty', which i'm afraid is just
not the authors' style - the 'economy of expression', which has long
which has long been the hallmark of the legendary textbooks by
Aho,Hopcroft and Ullman, is sadly missing here.
Which means that this may not be the book for you if you're pressed
for time - but on the other hand, if you want to led gently to the
proofs and results with lots of examples and motivation, then this
might be just the book for you.
So all in all, it definitely worth a read - in fact, i'd say
it's still among the top textbooks around.
In fact, i would suggest that you read both this and Sipser, if you
have the time. Otherwise Sipser's the better choice for most of the
part, though it may not cover all the topics you need.
And if you're comfortable with a terse, concise & rigorous
presentation, then the earlier edition of this book is still
unbeatable - and you'll surely need it if you want to pursue research
in this area.
Rating: 5
Summary: Very useful book for GRE CS Subject preparation (part III)
Comment: I needed a book which would speed me up with my GRE computer science subject test (part III: Theory). Having non US and non english language based Bachelor Degrees in CS and Math, I needed something to both learn the more precise terminology and at the same time to gather my prevous knoweldge of the subject. After little bit of browsing and examining of reviews, book contents and browsing pages in bookstores, I decided to buy this one.
I admit that I had a solid knowledge of almost all chapters of the book and that the book might be hard to swallow for someone who is not a little bit familiar in mathematical logic and elementary math but otherwise, the book is excellent. Even authors admit that previous editions were more demanding and in this one they introduced many easier examples and appropriate pictures and diagrams so I really did not have any problems understanding every concept.
After each chapter exercises are given and while they are useful, I would prefer solutions embedded into the book (as in Knuth's Art of Programming). Rather that doing that, authors put solutions (to selected exercises) on their web page which is not bad but the book would be more complete (and probably more expensive) with solutions inside. I would pay $20 more for that version though...
I also must say that I really appreciate hard cover and excellent quality paper (these unfortunately raised the price)
Overall, this is an excellent book and if you are in a similar situation as me, I would recommend this one.
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Title: Introduction to the Theory of Computation by Michael Sipser ISBN: 053494728X Publisher: Brooks Cole Pub. Date: 13 December, 1996 List Price(USD): $101.95 |
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Title: Introduction to Algorithms, Second Edition by Thomas H. Cormen, Charles E. Leiserson, Ronald L. Rivest, Clifford Stein ISBN: 0262032937 Publisher: MIT Press Pub. Date: 01 September, 2001 List Price(USD): $75.00 |
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Title: The Design and Analysis of Computer Algorithms (Addison-Wesley Series in Computer Science and Information Processing) by Alfred V. Aho, John E. Hopcroft, Jeffrey D. Ullman ISBN: 0201000296 Publisher: Addison-Wesley Pub Co Pub. Date: June, 1974 List Price(USD): $54.38 |
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Title: Operating System Concepts, 6th Edition by Abraham Silberschatz, Peter Baer Galvin, Greg Gagne, A Silberschatz ISBN: 0471417432 Publisher: John Wiley & Sons Pub. Date: 26 June, 2001 List Price(USD): $106.50 |
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Title: Compilers: Principles, Techniques, and Tools by Alfred V. Aho, Ravi Sethi, Jeffrey D. Ullman ISBN: 0201100886 Publisher: Addison-Wesley Pub Co Pub. Date: January, 1986 List Price(USD): $92.00 |
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