Perspectives on Computer Science

Perspectives on Computer Science provides information pertinent to the fundamental aspects of computer science. This book discusses the weaknesses frequently found in minicomputers. Organized into 12 chapters, this book begins with an overview of the technological, economic, and human aspects of the environment in which PDP-11 was designed and built. This text then examines the set of techniques for tree searching. Other chapters consider a tutorial on automatic planning systems, with emphasis given to knowledge representation issues. This book discusses as well the classical least-fixedpoint approach toward recursive programs and examines the interplay between time and space determined by a variety of machine models. The final chapter deals with some of the primary influences in contemporary programming language design, namely, programming methodology, program specification, verification, and formal semantic definition techniques. This book is a valuable resource for students and teachers. Computer science theoreticians and mathematicians will also find this book useful.