Textbook in PDF format

Recent applications to biomolecular science and DNA computing have created a new audience for automata theory and formal languages. This is the only introductory book to cover such applications. It begins with a clear and readily understood exposition of the basic principles, that assumes only a background in discrete mathematics. The first five chapters give a gentle but rigorous coverage of regular languages and Kleene’s Theorem, minimal automata and syntactic monoids, Turing machines and decidability, and explain the relationship between context-free languages and pushdown automata. They include topics not found in other texts at this level, including codes, retracts, and semiretracts. The many examples and exercises help to develop the reader’s insight. Chapter 6 introduces combinatorics on words and then uses it to describe a visually inspired approach to languages that is a fresh but accessible area of current research. The final chapter explains recently-developed language theory coming from developments in bioscience and DNA computing.
With over 350 exercises (for which solutions are available), plenty of examples and illustrations, this text will be welcomed by students as a contemporary introduction to this core subject; others, new to the field, will appreciate this account for self-learning.
Introduction
Languages and codes
Automata
Grammars
Turing machines
A visual approach to formal languages
From biopolymers to formal language theory