Relational methods can be found at various places in
computer science, notably in data base theory, relational
semantics of concurrency, relationaltype theory, analysis
of rewriting systems, and modern programming language
design. In addition, they appear in algorithms analysis and
in the bulk of discrete mathematics taught to computer
scientists.
This book is devoted to the background of these methods. It
explains how to use relational and graph-theoretic methods
systematically in computer science.
A powerful formal framework of relational algebra is
developed with respect to applications to a diverse range of
problem areas. Results are first motivated by practical
examples, often visualized by both Boolean 0-1-matrices and
graphs, and then derived algebraically.