[jacobolus]

You don’t think this book is aimed at pure mathematics students?

It’s certainly not aimed at numerical analysis students, or engineering students, or physics students. (Which isn’t to say that those students can’t take pure math courses if they want.)

[pvg]

I mean in the context of Strang. I don't think Strang is aimed strictly at, say, engineering students. To me, the difference is the starting point, more than anything else.

[jacobolus]

As far as I can tell Strang’s target audience is something like: most undergraduates at MIT who didn’t already learn the subject before arrival, except the pure math students who are likely to substitute a more theoretical course (18.700 or 18.701 vs. 18.06).

[pvg]

Right. Each is aimed at somewhat different audiences. We're undoubtedly getting into some pretty fine hairsplitting, the thing I was whining about is 'pure maths students' and 'everyone else' is not an accurate way to describe them.