Preface
The premise of this book (and the other books in the Think X series) is that if
you know how to program, you can use that skill to learn other things. I am
writing this book because I think the conventional approach to digital signal
processing is backward: most books (and the classes that use them) present
the material bottom-up, starting with mathematical abstractions like pha-
sors.
With a programming-based approach, I can go top-down, which means I
can present the most important ideas right away. By the end of the first
chapter, you can decompose a sound into its harmonics, modify the har-
monics, and generate new sounds.
0.1 Using the code
The code and sound samples used in this book are available from
https:
//github.com/AllenDowney/ThinkDSP
. Git is a version control system that
allows you to keep track of the files that make up a project. A collection of
files under Git’s control is called a repository. GitHub is a hosting service
that provides storage for Git repositories and a convenient web interface.
The GitHub homepage for my repository provides several ways to work
with the code:
• You can create a copy of my repository on GitHub by pressing the
Fork
button. If you don’t already have a GitHub account, you’ll need to
create one. After forking, you’ll have your own repository on GitHub
that you can use to keep track of code you write while working on
this book. Then you can clone the repo, which means that you make a
copy of the files on your computer.
• Or you could clone my repository. You don’t need a GitHub account
to do this, but you won’t be able to write your changes back to GitHub.
