This innovative volume provides a hands-on introduction to techniques for specifying the behavior of software components. A text for a second-year undergraduate course in Computer Science and Computer Engineering programs, it is also suitable for self-study. This book will help students to improve their programming skills and gain a sound foundation and motivation for subsequent courses in advanced algorithms and data structures, software design, formal methods, compilers, programming languages, and theory. The main topics covered are techniques for using programmer-friendly assertional notations to specify, develop, and verify small but non-trivial algorithms and data representations, and the use of state diagrams, grammars, and regular expressions to specify and develop recognizers for formal languages. The presentation is based on numerous examples and case studies appropriate to the level of programming expertise of the intended readership.