Elements of the Theory of Computation 2nd Edition by Harry Lewis (PDF)

Description

Appropriate for senior and graduate level courses in Computer Science Theory, Automata, and Theory of Computation.This is the long awaited Second Edition of Lewis and Papadimitriou’s best-selling theory of computation text. In this substantially modified edition, the authors have enhanced the clarity of their presentation by making the material more accessible to a broader undergraduate audience with no special mathematical experience.

User’s Reviews

Editorial Reviews: From the Back Cover Lewis and Papadimitriou present this long awaited Second Edition of their best-selling theory of computation. The authors are well-known for their clear presentation that makes the material accessible to a a broad audience and requires no special previous mathematical experience. In this new edition, the authors incorporate a somewhat more informal, friendly writing style to present both classical and contemporary theories of computation. Algorithms, complexity analysis, and algorithmic ideas are introduced informally in Chapter 1, and are pursued throughout the book. Each section is followed by problems.

Reviews from Amazon users which were colected at the time this book was published on the website:

⭐I enjoyed this book because I enjoy formal mathematics. This is not an applications book, but a formal study of the mathematics that underly algorithmic design and analysis. I’m no math wizard, and I found this book readable (but I had to take it very slowly). The course for which I bought the book only covered chapters 1 – 4 and glossed over the final 3 chapters, but I intend to read the rest over the summer between semesters because it’s so well and thoroughly written. This book is *dense*. I had to re-read everything three times before I absorbed it all, but ultimately I’ve understood everything I’ve read. The hardest parts to understand were the formal “proofs by induction” on the lengths of strings and sets – and, as any math student knows, you can gloss over the proofs on the first reading. A lot of the formal definitions (finite automata, pushdown automata, Turing machines, context-free grammars, etc.) baffled me on the first reading, but after reviewing the examples and working through a few problems, I could go back, re-read the formal definition and understand it.My principal complaint with this book, and the only reason I gave this book a four-star review instead of five, is the same complaint I have with a lot of other textbooks – there are no answers for any of the problems (nor can I find a supplement or a study guide or any help anywhere). Given the nature of the problems themselves, it’s impossible to verify your answers. This seems to be a trend in textbooks, and it’s extremely frustrating. I plan to self-study the last half of the book in the next few months, but without a self-study guide, I’m pretty much out of luck if I can’t solve a problem.

⭐Had some pencil marks around some of the problem sets, but otherwise in fine condition.

⭐1)The book I got is having the headings in some other language along with English which isn’t there in the original book.2)Also the size of the book is very small and the letter size in the book are very small which is not there in the original book.So I am not satisfied with this book.

⭐This class – and I was privileged to take the class from Prof. Lewis – and this book lit a fire inside me for computer science.

⭐This was one of my favorite textbooks from college. In fact, I still have it on my shelf. It is a fantastic textbook, attemtping to introduce the Theoretical Foundations of Computer Science, in essence the science. In covering this, it moves into topics such as Finite Automata, Parsing, and Turing Machines.I feel the negative reviews are due to some confusion. This is not an algorithms book, or a programming book, or an “intro to AI” book. It’s a Math textbook. It’s language is one of theorems and proofs, and this would be hard going for someone not comfortable with a college-level abstract mathematics background.For those of you who have such a background, this book covers a topic where mathematics can become elegant. A physics major friend of mine fell in love with it, and he had no interest in Comp Sci!!For it’s topic, a similar book would be Feynman’s lecture notes on Physics. Both those volumes and this book were attempt to bring the highest levels of theory within the field to the undergraduate audience. Both succeed.

⭐Great text, mathematics meets computing, not much for reading material, but as a course text crucial for software engineers

⭐Elements of the Theory of Computation, by Lewis and Papadimitriou, is something of a classic in the theory of computation. Of the many books I have used to teach the theory of computation, this is the one I have been most satisfied with. It covers all of the fundamental concepts one would expect in such a book (more on this below) but offers a bit more mathematical rigor than most other books I’ve seen on this topic. It also covers one topic that is rarely even mentioned in other textbooks: the composition of Turing machines.The book begins with a brief introduction to the relevant discrete mathematics (such as set theory and cardinality) and proof techniques, then introduces the concepts of finite automata, regular expressions, and regular languages, describing their interrelationships. It proceeds to context-free languages, pushdown automata, parse trees, pumping lemmas, Turing machines, undecidability, computational complexity, and the theory of NP-completeness. (These are all standard topics.) Along the way, Lewis and Papadimitriou also introduce random access Turing machines and recursive functions, and do a nice job of explaining the halting problem and how this translates into undecidable problems involving grammars, various questions about Turing machines, and even two-dimensional tiling problems. All of these topics are covered with an appropriate mix of formalism and intuition.Perhaps the feature I like best is the discussion of composing simple Turing machines to obtain more complex and interesting machines. The authors even introduce a convenient graphical notation for combining Turing machines and spell out specific rules for composition. While most authors are forced to immediately employ heuristics in reasoning about complex Turing machines (lest the notation become overwhelming), Lewis and Papadimitriou are able to keep the discussion more formal and structured by virtue of their Turing machine “schema”. I believe this makes their arguments more rigorous and even easier to follow.This is clearly one of the best books on the theory of computation. However, be aware that there have been very significant changes from the first edition, which was lengthier and more thorough. I confess that I actually prefer the first edition, as it contains nice sections on logic and predicate calculus (which have been removed from the 2nd edition), and is a bit more formal (albeit with some fairly awful notation). The 2nd edition is definitely crisper, with much cleaner notation; it is clearly more student-friendly, which was presumably the aim of the new edition.If you wish to teach an introduction to theoretical computer science, or wish to learn it on your own, this would be a fine book to use. It’s hard to go wrong with this classic.

⭐An Outstanding book for TOC. CS students must buy.

⭐Bought the book from Amazon and it turned out to be paperback instead of hardcover. Couldn’t return it as it was needed right away but felt pretty cheated, the book was expensive. I paid for hardcover and got paperback instead. The contents of the book itself is what was expected, no problem there.

⭐Good

⭐Book is overall good but you will face difficulty in understanding concepts as the language used is hard and concepts are not cleared. I just opened this book for just 2-3 times till now. Prefer some Indian author’s book.

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