Introduction

A wide variety of problems in discrete mathematics, computer science, or the design of integrated circuits involve the task of manipulating objects over finite domains. The dependencies and relations among the objects are modeled by means of discrete functions. By introducing a binary encoding for the elements of the underlying domain, each finite problem can be fully expressed by means of switching functions, i.e., functions mapping bit vectors to single bits. Consequently, manipulations over finite domains can be entirely reduced to the treatment of switching functions.