Background material

This section presents some material relating to the theory of finite state automata, rewriting systems, and automatic structures. This material is mainly presented to enable the interested reader to understand better how MAF implements automata, and to provide a convenient place to define the meaning of techinal terms used elsewhere in the documentation.

No attempt is made to introduce the basics of the theory of groups and monoids. The author has attempted to use standard mathematical terminology and notation throughout. Wikipedia, or any standard textbook should define adequately any mathematical term used.