Introduction to the Theory of Computation

Just what I needed to support my Computer Science Masters Degree - clearly laid out, easy to follow and pitched at the right level

Great book to get a broad, yet deep introduction to the theory of computation.

A very good book, which I am using for my Complexity course in college. It is no surprise that it is so highly recommended already. However, it can be a little dry to read at times.

Clear explanations. Needed as a text for my university course but good material anyway.

Could not put it down. Such a readable and engaging text.

This is a great book for someone with the appropriate background. For example someone in the third year of a mathematics degree might find it a very good read. After some basic reminders about undergraduate-level mathematics the main contents of the book are broken into three parts. The first part is an introduction to finite state automata, regular languages and the like. The second part is on Turing machines and classical recursion theory (the Halting problem and the like) -- so basically a discussion on the notion of how functions can fail to be recursive. Part three is on computational complexity theory, so an introduction to the ideas behind how quickly one can actually compute a computable function. I have a background in mathematics (I am a pure mathematician, a number theorist) and found this part especially interesting and readable.

the book nicely covers the topic but the print is cheap, thin cheap paper, miss printing, smug marks and lines from a faulty printing process can been seen all over the book. some pages have a downwards line of characters completely missing, like every 10th character in a line has just not been printed. If you want this book I would buy a different print of it,

A very well written and easily understandable book. It gets straight to the point and explains everything in detail in a short way. I only give it 4 stars as the material is only somewhat interesting to me.