This book collates the findings of recent research and presents them for both
students and computer professionals. The authors aims to convey the excitement
of working in this area at the frontier of computer science. They also show how
the techniques described can lead to practical results. The book is a guide for
those setting out to write or use a computer system which, in some sense, learns
to improve its performance. College and university students should also find it
a useful survey of an active research field, whose results are beginning to have
practical applications. This book should be of interest to undergraduate
students of computer