This text exposes the basic features of cohomology of sheaves and its
applications. The general theory of sheaves is very limited and no
essential result is obtainable without turn- ing to particular classes
of topological spaces. The most satis- factory general class is that of
locally compact spaces and it is the study of such spaces which occupies
the central part of this text. The fundamental concepts in the study of
locally compact spaces is cohomology with compact support and a
particular class of sheaves, the so-called soft sheaves. This class
plays a double role as the basic vehicle for the internal theory and is
the key to applications in analysis. The basic example of a soft sheaf
is the sheaf of smooth functions on n or more generally on any smooth
manifold. A rather large effort has been made to demon- strate the
relevance of sheaf theory in even the most elementary analysis. This
process has been reversed in order to base the fundamental calculations
in sheaf theory on elementary analysis.