In classical analysis, there is a vast difference between the class of problems that may be handled by means of the methods of calculus and the class of problems requiring combinatorial techniques. With the advent of the digital computer, the distinction begins to blur, and with the increasing emphasis on problems involving optimization over structures, the distinction vanishes.
What is necessary for the analytic and computational treatment of significant questions arising in modern control theory, mathematical economics, scheduling theory, operations research, bioengineering, and so forth is a new and more flexible mathematical theory which subsumes both the classical continuous and discrete ilgorithms. The work by Hammer (Ivanescu) and Rudeanu on Boolean methods represents an important step in this direction, and it is thus a great pleasure to welcome it into print. It will certainly stimulate a great deal of additional research in both theory and application.