The Pillars of Computation Theory State, Encoding, Nondeterminism

From the reviews:

“Rosenberg (Colorado State) charts another path by teaching the major themes that underlie all of computer science. He identifies three themes, or pillars: ‘state,’ ‘encoding,’ and ‘nondeterminism.’ … This work is helpful for mathematically prepared undergraduates … . Summing Up: Recommended. Upper-division undergraduates, graduate students, researchers, and faculty.” (P. Cull, Choice, Vol. 47 (9), May, 2010)

“The author’s intentions are clear from the very beginning: he wants to change the way computation theory is taught to undergraduates. … The intended audience includes advanced undergraduates and beginning graduate students. … student whose interests run to theoretical computer science, this would be a challenging and attractive book. … For more typical students there are no exercises directly tied to the immediate text and few anywhere that are more routine – the kind of many students need to ground themselves in the subject.” (William J. Satzer, The Mathematical Association of America, March, 2010)

“This authoritative, tightly woven book is unsurpassed as the definitive computation theory text and reference … it has my highest recommendation.” (George Hacken, ACM Computing Reviews, August, 2010)