This book is a comprehensive guide to finite element methods and basic finite difference methods, with an emphasis on developing flexible computer programs using the numerical library Diffpack.

The author's goal is to teach numerics along with Diffpack, providing an excellent advanced tutorial and users manual for DIFFPACK while offering a wealth of first-hand computational experience.

The book offers new applications and projects, and all program examples are available on the internet.

This edition improves and corrects the text, adds new material, and updates the book to match the version 4.0 of the C++ software package Diffpack.

It is a very useful book for users of Diffpack, but also provides valuable insights of object-oriented numerics and state-of-the-art program development using standard programming techniques.