You might start with wikipedia - it's surprisingly good for introductions to mathematical computer science ideas. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Term_rewriting

You might start with wikipedia - it's surprisingly good for introductions to mathematical computer science ideas. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Term_rewriting http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Term_rewriting The "see also" includes JIT compilation and lambda calculus, for some applications.