Like a lot of people that work with computers, I have no genuine CompSci background (I studied philosophy before dropping out). Most of the time I can do with what I've gathered here and there, a few books I have, and Google.
But sometimes I get stuck and can't find the answer. That's the case here with tree automata. All I've found is research papers that are way over my head, no nice introduction to the general theory. I guess it's related to graph walking, but I'm not 100% sure, and I'm not certain of the specificities. If anyone knows of a good introductory resource, I'd be very happy and promise to put that knowledge to use writing a very cool module :)
You've probably seen this already but Robin Cover has a nice resource page for hedge/tree automata.
-ubu