Foundations Of Computation

Foundations of Computation is a free textbook for a one-semester course in theoretical computer science. It has been used for several years in a course at Hobart and William Smith Colleges. The course has no prerequisites other than introductory computer programming. The first half of the course covers material on logic, sets, and functions that would often be taught in a course in discrete mathematics. The second part covers material on automata, formal languages and grammar that would ordinarily be encountered in an upper level course in theoretical computer science.

Computing, today more than ever before, is a multi-faceted discipline which collates several methodologies, areas of interest, and approaches: mathematics, engineering, programming, and applications. Given its enormous impact on everyday life, it is essential that its debated origins are understood, and that its different foundations are explained. On the Foundations of Computing offers a comprehensive and critical overview of the birth and evolution of computing, and it presents some of the most important technical results and philosophical problems of the discipline, combining both historical and systematic analyses. The debates this text surveys are among the latest and most urgent ones: the crisis of foundations in mathematics and the birth of the decision problem, the nature of algorithms, the debates on computational artefacts and malfunctioning, and the analysis of computational experiments. By covering these topics, On the Foundations of Computing provides a much-needed resource to contextualize these foundational issues. For practitioners, researchers, and students alike, a historical and philosophical approach such as what this volume offers becomes essential to understand the past of the discipline and to figure out the challenges of its future.

Mathematical Foundations of Computer Science, Volume I is the first of two volumes presenting topics from mathematics (mostly discrete mathematics) which have proven relevant and useful to computer science. This volume treats basic topics, mostly of a set-theoretical nature (sets, functions and relations, partially ordered sets, induction, enumerability, and diagonalization) and illustrates the usefulness of mathematical ideas by presenting applications to computer science. Readers will find useful applications in algorithms, databases, semantics of programming languages, formal languages, theory of computation, and program verification. The material is treated in a straightforward, systematic, and rigorous manner. The volume is organized by mathematical area, making the material easily accessible to the upper-undergraduate students in mathematics as well as in computer science and each chapter contains a large number of exercises. The volume can be used as a textbook, but it will also be useful to researchers and professionals who want a thorough presentation of the mathematical tools they need in a single source. In addition, the book can be used effectively as supplementary reading material in computer science courses, particularly those courses which involve the semantics of programming languages, formal languages and automata, and logic programming.

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Collection of papers by leading researchers in computational mathematics, suitable for graduate students and researchers.