I think this is a really nice and user friendly book if you look for a painless intro to mathlab, or if you look for the quick and essential tips that can get you started hands-on with a few functions or programs. No prerequisites are needed! Of the computer and programming tools out there in math and in CS, Matlab is probably the one that it tailored more directly to numerical computations and to matrices (to graphics too!); as opposed to symbolic manipulations, where perhaps Mathematica and Mable have an edge. Yet, these choices often come down to a matter of taste, and to what you are used to. Or what the book or the class is steering you towards. Still, I noticed over the past year, that teachers and students involved with elementary numerical analysis, math, or CS courses have liked this little book. And yet, there are lots of other Matlab-books out there; as well as manuals, step-by-step guides, etc; and some are even free on the web. Thanks God for Google! But this little book seems especially attractive for beginners. Review by Palle Jorgensen, January 29, 2006.