[M1] Introduction to Automata Theory, Languages, and Computation (3rd edition). J.E. Hopcroft, R. Motwani, J.D. Ullman. Addison Wesley, 2007.

[M2] Lecture Notes for Formal Languages. Diego Calvanese. 2007. Available as scanned pages in pdf.

[M3] Exercises on Formal Languages. Available as scanned pages in pdf.

Lectures 1,2 - 8/10/2007

• Topics [M2: Part 1]
  • course presentation
  • basic definitions about relations
• What you should know after the lecture
  • the basic notions about relations

Lectures 3,4 - 15/10/2007

• Topics [M2: Part 1]
  • basic definitions about functions
  • basic definitions about languages
• What you should know after the lecture
  • the basic notions about relations and functions, and their properties
  • the formal meaning of alphabet, string, language

Lectures 5,6 - 15/10/2007

• Topics [M2: Part 2]
  • finite state machines
  • deterministic finite automata (DFA)
  • extended transition function for a DFA
• What you should know after the lecture
  • how a finite-state machine works (informally)
  • the formal definitions of a DFA and of an NFA, and of the language they accept
  • construct a DFA for a given language

Lectures 7,8 - 22/10/2007

• Topics [M2: Part 2]
  • nondeterministic finite automata (NFA)
  • different views of nondeterminism
  • relationship between DFAs and NFAs (subset construction)
• What you should know after the lecture
  • construct an NFA for a given language
  • how to prove that DFAs and NFAs accept the same class of languages
  • how to contstruct a DFA from a given NFA

Exercise 1,2 - 22/10/2007

• Exercises on deterministic and nondeterministic finite automata [M3: Exercise 1,2]

Lectures 9,10 - 29/10/2007

• Topics [M2: Part 2]
  • finite automata with epsilon-transitions
  • eliminating epsilon-transitions
• What you should know after the lecture
  • how to prove that epsilon-NFAs and NFAs accept the same class of languages
  • how to construct an NFA from a given epsilon-NFA

Exercise 3 - 29/10/2007

• Exercises on finite automata with epsilon transitions and on regular languages [M3: Exercise 3]

Lectures 11,12 - 19/11/2007

• Topics [M2: Part 3]
  • regular expressions
  • algebraic laws for regular expressions
• What you should know after the lecture
  • what the language generated by a regular expression is
  • what algebraic laws hold for regular expressions

Exercise 4 - 19/11/2007

• Exercises on finite automata and regular expressions [M3: Exercise 4]

Lectures 13,14 - 26/11/2007

• Topics [M2: Part 3]
  • converting a regular expression to a finite automaton
  • converting a finite automaton to a regular expression
• What you should know after the lecture
  • how to prove that finite automata accept exactly the regular languages
  • how to construct a finite automaton from a given R.E.
  • how to construct a R.E. from a given automaton

Exercise 5 - 26/11/2007

• Exercises on finite automata and regular expressions [M3: Exercise 5]

Lectures 15,16 - 27/11/2007

• Topics [M2: Part 4]
  • closure properties of regular expressions
  • pumping lemma for regular languages
  • proving languages not to be regular
• What you should know after the lecture
  • that regular languages are closed under regular and boolean operations
  • how to prove that a languages is not regular
  • what properties can be decided about regular languages

Lectures 17,18 - 3/12/2007

• Topics [M2: Part 4]
  • decision problems for regular languages
  • minimization of finite automata
• What you should know after the lecture
  • what properties about regular languages can be decided, and what is the computational cost
  • how to minimize a finite automaton

Exercise 6 - 3/12/2007

• Exercises on properties of regular languages and pumping lemma [M3: Exercise 6]

Lectures 19,20 - 10/12/2007

• Topics [M2: Part 5]
  • Chomsky formal grammars
  • derivation
• What you should know after the lecture
  • what a Chomsky formal grammar is
  • how the language generated by a formal grammar is defined

Exercise 7,8 - 10/12/2007

• Exercises on minimization of finite automata [M3: Exercise 7,8]

Lectures 21,22 - 7/1/2008

• Topics [M2: Part 5]
  • classification of formal grammars
  • grammars of type 0, type 1 (or context-sensitive), type 2 (or context-free), type 3 (or regular)
  • context free grammars
  • parse-trees for context-free grammars
• What you should know after the lecture
  • how formal grammars are classified
  • recognize what the type of a grammar is
  • how context-free grammars are defined
  • how to construct the parse-tree corresponding to a derivation

Exercise 9,10 - 7/1/2008

• Exercises on classification of grammars [M3: Exercise 9,10]

Lectures 23,24 - 14/1/2008

• Topics [M2: Part 5]
  • simplifying context free grammars (eliminating useless symbols, eliminating epsilon-transitions, eliminating unit-productions)
  • Chomsky normal form for a CFG
• What you should know after the lecture
  • how to eliminate useless symbols from a CFG
  • how to eliminate epsilon-productions from a CFG
  • how to eliminate unit-productions from a CFG
  • how to convert a CFG into Chomsky normal form

Exercise 11,12 - 14/1/2008

• Exercises on context-free grammars and normal forms for grammars [M3: Exercise 11,12]

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