Language equations

the long version

The emphasis of the book is on introducing a unified theory of language equations and relations. Numerous techniques for solving different kinds of equations and relations are presented. The main objective is to obtain representations or constructions of the complete solution set of a given system of equations or relations. Typically, the constructions are effective only if the constant languages are regular. The book is readable by anyone with a working knowledge of elementary automata and language theory. There are numerous detailed examples as well as exercises that make this book suitable as a text for a graduate or an advanced undergraduate course.