New Developments In Formal Languages And Applications

The theory of formal languages is widely accepted as the backbone of t- oretical computer science. It mainly originated from mathematics (com- natorics, algebra, mathematical logic) and generative linguistics. Later, new specializations emerged from areas ofeither computer science(concurrent and distributed systems, computer graphics, arti?cial life), biology (plant devel- ment, molecular genetics), linguistics (parsing, text searching), or mathem- ics (cryptography). All human problem solving capabilities can be considered, in a certain sense, as a manipulation of symbols and structures composed by symbols, which is actually the stem of formal language theory. Language – in its two basic forms, natural and arti?cial – is a particular case of a symbol system. This wide range of motivations and inspirations explains the diverse - plicability of formal language theory ? and all these together explain the very large number of monographs and collective volumes dealing with formal language theory. In 2004 Springer-Verlag published the volume Formal Languages and - plications, edited by C. Martín-Vide, V. Mitrana and G. P?un in the series Studies in Fuzziness and Soft Computing 148, which was aimed at serving as an overall course-aid and self-study material especially for PhD students in formal language theory and applications. Actually, the volume emerged in such a context: it contains the core information from many of the lectures - livered to the students of the International PhD School in Formal Languages and Applications organized since 2002 by the Research Group on Mathem- ical Linguistics from Rovira i Virgili University, Tarragona, Spain.

The theory of formal languages is widely recognized as the backbone of theoretical computer science, originating from mathematics and generative linguistics, among others. As a foundational discipline, formal language theory concepts and techniques are present in a variety of theoretical and applied fields of contemporary research which are concerned with symbol manipulation: discrete mathematics, bioinformatics, natural language processing, pattern recognition, text retrieval, learning, cryptography, compression, etc. This volume presents the main results of some recent, quickly developing subfields of formal language theory in an easily accessible way and provides the reader with extensive bibliographical references to go deeper. Open problems are formulated too. The intended audience consists of undergraduates and graduates in computer science or mathematics. Graduates in other disciplines (linguistics, electrical engineering, molecular biology, logic) with some basic level of mathematical maturity may find the volume appealing and useful too. The book represents 'a gate to formal language theory and its applications' and a source of information in computation theory in general. This volume is complementary of the volumes in the Springer series Studies in Fuzziness and Soft Computing, number 148, and Studies in Computational Intelligence, 25.

The contributors present the main results and techniques of their specialties in an easily accessible way accompanied with many references: historical, hints for complete proofs or solutions to exercises and directions for further research. This volume contains applications which have not appeared in any collection of this type. The book is a general source of information in computation theory, at the undergraduate and research level.

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 the study of biological systems, 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. 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. remove remove

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.

The theory of formal languages is one of the oldest branches of theoretical computer science. Its original aim (in the fifties and sixties) was to clarify the laws and algorithms that underlie the definition and compilation of programming languages. Since then, formal language theory has changed very much. Today it includes mathematical topics like combinatorics of words, word equations, and coding theory, but it also covers connections to linguistics (for example, the study of contextual grammars), new computational paradigms (like DNA computing), and a wide range of applications, among them hypertext processing, database theory, and formal program verification. Many of these themes of modern formal language theory are represented in this volume. Contents:Automata and LanguagesCodes, Combinatorics of Words, and Algebraic MethodsApplications in Database Theory and ParsingGeneralized Models of Grammars and Computation Readership: Graduate students and researchers in theoretical computer science. Keywords:Formal Languages;New Computational Paradigms;Hypertext Processing;Database Theory;Formal Program Verification;Automata;Codes;Combinatorics;Parsing

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 contributions of the proceedings cover almost all parts of the theory of formal languages from pure theoretical investigations to applications to programming languages. Main topics are combinatorial properties of words, sequences of words and sets of words, grammar systems and grammars with controlled derivations, generation of higher-dimensional objects and graphs, trace languages, numerical parameters of automata and languages.