- the book is designed for use for entry level graduate students, or working professionals looking for review/topical introduction.
- computer based solutions are used liberally throughout the book with a bias towards practical problems.
- basic book design - short chapters, easily used as one or more modules per class
- review modules are marked with the title review. This allows review material to be reviewed without having it dominate the book
- programs are written in C and Scilab. Scilab has been used because it is available freely, but is very similar to matlab
- sample problem solutions are boxed
- asides and notes are given as appropriate
- the text is written to be very direct and student friendly in tone.
- written from an engineers perspective - using mathematics as a tool
- chapters begin and end with summaries
- in some cases topics are presented out of order. Although this would be a major problem if it was a first introduction, as a review it is done in the interests of brevity.