FML. A programmer just asked someone for advice on learning a bit about the signal processing/Fourier transforming that goes on around here, and that someone replied with “<long pause> Uh, I’d start with an undergrad linear systems book… Oppenheim and Schafer.” WORST ANSWER EVER, gods help the poor programmer.
My advice, likely too hastily offered to said programmer, with exhortations to ignore the previous advisor, turned out to be: (1) DFT chapter of “Scientist and Engineer’s Guide to Digital Signal Processing” (http://www.dspguide.com/CH8.PDF) and any subsequent chapters of interest (e.g., digital filters), and (2) Jack Schaedler’s “Circles, Sines, and Signals” explorable explanation (https://jackschaedler.github.io/circles-sines-signals/).
@22 thanks for the links...i'm a programmer who's been curious about that in the past, psyched to have something to go read when i've got some time.
@rascalking Please know that you are welcome to ask me questions directly, I learned what I know only with the help of many patient mentors and will be happy to try and pass it on. I’m thinking it would be really useful to make a set of programming katas that require the use of signal processing ideas to solve—you know, talk to me vs show me vs make me do it. I’ll see if there’s something like that already.