Speaking for myself, there was no backlash. I well recall that at the Bowdoin meeting in 1969, Sammy gave some talks and said that the stuff was interesting and had revived his ability to work, which had been in the doldrums. (I think getting rid of Natasha helped too. He said that was expensive but worth every cent.) My attitude was that if revived him, so much the better. Michael On Fri, 6 Mar 2009, Ellis D. Cooper wrote:
Was there some kind of community backlash reaction to the work of Samuel Eilenberg on automata, languages and machines? Why did some people feel the way they did about it? What were the pro and con arguments at the time? What is the story to the best of your recollection?
Thanks for any help on this merely historical question.
Ellis D. Cooper
Ellis D. Cooper, Ph.D. 978-546-5228 (LAND) 978-853-4894 (CELL) XTALV1@NETROPOLIS.NET