This book, first published in 2000, is devoted to developments in symbolic dynamics and comprises eight chapters. The first two are concerned with the study of symbolic sequences of 'low complexity', the following two introduce 'high complexity' systems. Chapter five presents results on asymptotic laws for the random times of occurrence of rare events. Chapter six deals with diophantine problems and combinatorial Ramsey theory. Chapter seven looks at the dynamics of symbolic systems arising from numeration systems, and finally chapter eight gives a complete description of the symbolic dynamics of Lorenz maps.