Spectral Methods in MATLAB

Rating:
Summary: Loaded with errors, author defensive and arrogant
Review: I found glaring errors starting on page 1. I emailed the author for clarification who agreed that his nomenclature was unclear and misleading (come on Professor, we call them mistakes, errata, etc.). The first chapter is available in his web site, go see for yourself. You'll also find a page of errata, which unfortunately is far from complete. My colleagues and I desperately tried to get Professor Trefethen to clarify his nomenclature, which he quite arrogantly dismissed. His matlab code seems to execute fine, but you'll likely spend a good deal of time dissecting it. Any programmer who must use someone elses code despises poorly commented and optimized code. This book just isn't a good place to start for spectral methods or matlab.

Rating:
Summary: A useful introduction to spectral methods
Review: The author achieves the hard task of explaining the subject in a very simple and, at the same time, intelligent way. The MATLAB m-files are short, educative and full of useful tricks. The book is well motivated, focused in the essentials and easy to read. I am very fond of most of Prof. Trefethen writings and this book is no disappoitment. It contrasts starkly with the lack of mathematical insight in most of the engineering collocation literature, but at the same time has a hands-on approach to the problems. This book should be useful to anybody interested in solving PDE in regular geometries.