
Introduction to Theory of Computation [pdf] - mindcrime
http://cg.scs.carleton.ca/~michiel/TheoryOfComputation/TheoryOfComputation.pdf
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softatlas
I believe Brian Cantwell Smith should be mentioned here.

    
    
        Which leads me to say something about computing. I have repeatedly
        mentioned computation as one of the intentional sciences. Some of you will
        know that for almost 30 years I have been engaged in a foundational inquiry
        into the basic nature of computing—trying to figure out what it is, where it
        came from, what its intellectual importance is, what it augers for the future. I
        have spent 30 years, the project is largely complete ... and I have failed. Or
        rather: I have succeeded, I believe, in coming up with the answer. But the
        answer is: there’s nothing there.[0]
    

[0]:
[http://www.ageofsignificance.org/people/bcsmith/papers/smith...](http://www.ageofsignificance.org/people/bcsmith/papers/smith-
godapprox4.html)

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ttctciyf
Very bracing read. Thanks!

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j2kun
I feel like if you want a good introductory theory text you need to focus less
on everything up to (and including) decidability and get as quickly as you can
to complexity theory. There are certainly a few central milestones, but to
spend 200 pages and only get to P/NP seems like a crime. There are so many
other topics to whet one's appetite for theoretical computer science!

Then again, this text appears to have been written for the kind of readers who
have never written a proof before. So I expect this would fill a semester of
puzzling over the minute details of the pumping lemma and various closure
properties (but again, to what end?).

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3rd3
There are quite a few important insights along the way:

[http://cstheory.stackexchange.com/questions/14811/what-is-
th...](http://cstheory.stackexchange.com/questions/14811/what-is-the-
enlightenment-im-supposed-to-attain-after-studying-finite-automata)

~~~
j2kun
I think very few of these are actually revealed in such an introductory
course, and you can gain the same insights from other topics in complexity
theory (for example PSPACE = NPSPACE).

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userbinator
From the title I thought it would be this one:

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Introduction_to_the_Theory_of_C...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Introduction_to_the_Theory_of_Computation)

(It's also a good book so recommended, the part on automata is useful even for
those not interested in theory, and being theory-averse myself, I didn't find
it to be too dense --- although the later chapters certainly are.)

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groovy2shoes
I second this. The Sipser text was one of my favorites from my university
career. It's very short and covers a lot of material. There's no fluff at all,
but it still manages to do a good job explaining the topics. Solid textbooks
like that are very rare. It's one of only 3 books I elected to keep after the
course was over (the others being an 8086 assembly language reference and an
intro to computer security).

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rgandhi
when I took this course in college, this is what helped me get through. Guy is
awesome
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HyUK5RAJg1c&list=PL601FC994B...](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HyUK5RAJg1c&list=PL601FC994BDD963E4)

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adestefan
It makes me sad to read the introduction and see that their course has become
only an elective now. I'm sure it was replaced by some trivial course about a
new fad language.

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mabbo
More likely more electives. Because having 1/3 of the credits be non-CS and
non-Math wasn't quite enough.

 _glares at his Carleton CS degree_

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benth
I'd have assumed this was Sipser's book as well, except that I was recently at
a university bookstore and saw the third edition of his book priced at over
$200. Sipser's a great writer, but that's an outrageous price. When I was in
school, it was still expensive at a bit over $100.

I am grateful this free alternative exists, because the subject matter is
really fun.

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jestinjoy1
Happy to see book released under Creative Commonns license. A quick glance
made me think that book is heavily influenced by Sipsers book. Should have
used custom LaTeX template for books
([https://www.sharelatex.com/templates/books/](https://www.sharelatex.com/templates/books/))

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jonsen
"The course as we teach it today has been influenced by the following two
textbooks: • Introduction to the Theory of Computation (second edition), by
Michael Sipser, Thomson Course Technnology, Boston, 2006."

