Purposes of a book

There are various needs that a book may try to fulfill, for example:

1. It may be as a textbook that students taking a class can closely follow, with several examples and homework problems, code samples, sample projects

2. It may be as a overview of the state of the art in a particular area of active research, enabling researchers a nice tutorial overview so that they can focus on thinking about unsolved problems and their solutions

3. It may be for practicing engineers who want to learn quickly how to implement a certain algorithm

4. It may be for people trying to learn about a subject for the first time but with a specific application in mind

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Some other goals a book might have

1. Provide a unique perspective/spin on a topic with an overarching theme

2. provide several interesting ideas that are put to test under practical/real-life settings

3. reference for problem solving techniques in this area

4. some pointers/tips on useful open source tools like ns2, python (how to guides)