Discrete Mathematics : An Introduction for Software Engineers

This book is designed to form the basis of a one-year course in discrete mathematics for first-year computer scientists and software engineers. It covers much of undergraduate algebra with a bias towards computing applications. It includes: mathematical logic; set theory, finite and infinite relations and mappings; graphs; graphical algorithms and axiom systems.

Computing developed as a branch of mathematics, only to drift away from this home as computer science diverged towards more general topics such as the theory of how a computer works. Recently the emphasis has become more mathematical and the new disciplines of software engineering and information technology have emerged. This book is designed to form the basis of a one year course in discrete mathematics for first year computer scientists or software engineers. The material presented covers much of undergraduate algebra with a particular bias towards the computing applications. Topics covered include mathematical logic, set theory, finite and infinite relations and mappings, graphs, graphical algorithms and axiom systems. It concludes with implementations of many of the algorithms in Modula-2 to illustrate how the mathematics may be turned into concrete calculations. Numerous examples and exercises are included with selected solutions to the problems appearing in the appendix. Discrete mathematics is the basic language which every student of computing should take pride in mastering and this book should prove an essential tool in this aim.