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Can someone recommend me a good online course in automata theory (or even a book). I tried Ullman's course on edX (or Coursera, don't remember). But I found it

Can someone recommend me a good online course in automata theory (or even a book). I tried Ullman's course on edX (or Coursera, don't remember). But I found it a bit difficult to follow -- seemed a bit dry and monotonous, to me at least. Had the same experience with Ullman's book (first edition at least). I have enough theoretical background in CS and am not averse to reading dense material.

deleted 6y ago
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joshmarlow 6y ago
I'm assuming this was the Ullman book you took a look at - https://www.amazon.com/Introduction-Automata-Languages-Computation-Addison-Wesley/dp/020102988X/ https://www.amazon.com/Introduction-Automata-Languages-Compu... If not, it's good but pretty dense. If you didn't like that, then I would recommend this one - https://www.amazon.com/Introduction-Theory-Computation-Michael-Sipser/dp/113318779X https://www.amazon.com/Introduction-Theory-Computation-Micha... Sipser has a lot less notation and more english explanations of the concepts. I picked it up and read most of it after graduating - it's pretty easy to follow (though if I recall, I think some of the terminology around Turing complete languages differed slightly from the Ullman text).
- llimllib 6y ago
  I love sipser, it’s one of the few textbooks I kept after college
- pthreads 6y ago
  Thanks for the Sipser recommendation. Picked it up yesterday and already liking it.
brudgers 6y ago
My interest in the topic carried me through Ulman’s Corsera course...the second time back when such things were free. Which is only relevant in the sense that what changes is our relationship to the material over time. Our interests evolve. Same our expectations. Ulman wrote the book. It’s hard to do better than that in many of the ways that matter.
ricklamers 6y ago
I can highly recommend https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLbtzT1TYeoMjNOGEiaRmm_vMIwUAidnQz https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLbtzT1TYeoMjNOGEiaRmm_vMI... I’ve deeply enjoyed his videos and after the course in which we treated the material, regexes were all of a sudden extremely obvious. I benefit from it almost daily. Accompanying book I would recommend: Introduction to the theory of Computing by Michael Sipser. Credits go to TU Delft professors for architecting the course.

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joshmarlow 6y ago

I'm assuming this was the Ullman book you took a look at - https://www.amazon.com/Introduction-Automata-Languages-Computation-Addison-Wesley/dp/020102988X/ https://www.amazon.com/Introduction-Automata-Languages-Compu... If not, it's good but pretty dense. If you didn't like that, then I would recommend this one - https://www.amazon.com/Introduction-Theory-Computation-Michael-Sipser/dp/113318779X https://www.amazon.com/Introduction-Theory-Computation-Micha... Sipser has a lot less notation and more english explanations of the concepts. I picked it up and read most of it after graduating - it's pretty easy to follow (though if I recall, I think some of the terminology around Turing complete languages differed slightly from the Ullman text).

llimllib 6y ago
I love sipser, it’s one of the few textbooks I kept after college
pthreads 6y ago
Thanks for the Sipser recommendation. Picked it up yesterday and already liking it.

brudgers 6y ago

My interest in the topic carried me through Ulman’s Corsera course...the second time back when such things were free. Which is only relevant in the sense that what changes is our relationship to the material over time. Our interests evolve. Same our expectations. Ulman wrote the book. It’s hard to do better than that in many of the ways that matter.

ricklamers 6y ago

I can highly recommend https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLbtzT1TYeoMjNOGEiaRmm_vMIwUAidnQz https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLbtzT1TYeoMjNOGEiaRmm_vMI... I’ve deeply enjoyed his videos and after the course in which we treated the material, regexes were all of a sudden extremely obvious. I benefit from it almost daily. Accompanying book I would recommend: Introduction to the theory of Computing by Michael Sipser. Credits go to TU Delft professors for architecting the course.