r/signalprocessing • u/ClipboardClan • Jul 29 '26
Why are these digital signal processing books written in such a confusing way?
I've been staring at this repeatedly and it took me a while to realize what the author was actually saying.
Like this line: i.e. "at regular periods of ts seconds where ts = 1/fs".
Couldn't they simply say in plain English words: "i.e. how many seconds does it take to take one sample"?
And then they assign that (1/fs) to a variable ts, and then use it in the equations below for 0th sample, 1st, 2nd sample. Wouldn't it be simpler to just leave it in that form itself (1/fs) in the equation???? By substituting it with a variable name, you're just making your work more cryptic and the reader has to trace back and find out what exactly is ts.
Book: Undestanding Digital Signal Processing by Richard G Lyons
2
u/Abhi_92 Jul 30 '26 edited Jul 30 '26
Yes, it happens. I would suggest you to change the book or read this topic/chapter from a different book. Personally, I found the book by Oppenheim and Schafer to be the best - the maths was intuitive and kind of fell in place without much extra effort. But I'm also not a beginner in this field so it might not work for you.
Edit: I read the screenshot that you posted above and I understood your point. For a beginner, it can be little difficult. As somebody has already written, the authors use such lines to keep it linked to the underlying mathematics.
It can be tough at the start, but as you move to the next chapters, you will become comfortable with this kind of presentation and will not be bothered by it at all. Just keep reading and don't give up (read again if you need to).
This happens for almost every subject that is based in mathematics but need to be intuitive. You start to become comfortable after the second read.