Uwe Schoning – författare

By the development of new fields and applications, such as Automated Theorem Proving and Logic Programming, Logic has obtained a new and important role in Computer Science. The traditional mathematical way of dealing with Logic is in some respect not tailored for Computer Science - plications. This book emphasizes such Computer Science aspects in Logic. It arose from a series of lectures in 1986 and 1987 on Computer Science Logic at the EWH University in Koblenz, Germany. The goal of this l- ture series was to give the undergraduate student an early and theoretically well-founded access to modern applications of Logic in Computer Science. A minimal mathematical basis is required, such as an understanding of the notation and knowledge about the basic mathematical proof techniques induction). More sophisticated mathematical kno- edge not a precondition read this book. Acquaintance with some conventional programming language, PASCAL, assumed. Several people helped in various ways in the preparation process of the original German version of this book: Johannes KSbler, Eveline and Rainer Schuler, and Hermann Engesser from B.I. Wissenschaftsverlag. Regarding the English version, I want to express my deep gratitude to Prof. Ronald Book. Without him, this translated version of the book would not have been possible.

Dieses Buch beschreitet einen neuen Weg. Inhalte der Informatik, größtenteils aus dem Bereich der Theoretischen Informatik, wie sie meist nur an den Universitäten mit der ganzen dahinter steckenden Tiefe und Strukturtheorie gelehrt werden, werden hier für ein breiteres Publikum aufbereitet und verfügbar gemacht. Der Autor verdeutlicht, dass der Zugang zur Informatik über die formale Methode, die Grundideen und die Algorithmik viel Spaß machen kann. Effiziente, praxisrelevante Lösungsansätze stehen im Vordergrund, was Verständlichkeit und Anwendbarkeit der Ideen fördert. Durch die Vielzahl der behandelten Modelle und Konzepte (kurz: Ideen) wird der große Zusammenhang deutlich gemacht. Ein umfangreiches weiterführendes Literaturverzeichnis runden die leicht lesbare und trotzdem korrekte und umfassende Darstellung ab.

While I was visiting Boston University during the 1996-97 academic year, I noticed a small book, written in German, on a shelf in Steve Homer''s office. Curious, I borrowed it for my train ride home and began reading one of the chapters. I liked the style and format of the book so much that over the course of the next few months I frequently found myself reaching for it and working through one chapter or another. This was my introduction to Peden der Theoretischen Informatik. A few of my colleagues had also seen the book. They also found it inter­ esting, but most of them did not read German well enough to read more than small portions of it enjoyably. I hope that the English version will rectify this situation, and that many will enjoy (and learn from) the English version as much as I enjoyed the German version. The front matter of this book says that it has been "translated, revised, and expanded." I should perhaps say a few words about each of these tasks. In translating the book, Ihave tried as much as possible to retain the feel of the original, which is somewhat less formal and impersonal than a typical text book yet relatively concise. I certainly hope that the "pleasure of the pursuit of understanding" has not gotten lost in the translation.