To take full advantage of this book you need a good background in control theory (mandatory!) and mechanics. The book has excellent information about the variables, approximations and all the stuff relating to gasoline and diesel engines. If you need a more in depth understanding of the principles sometimes explained superficially in "tunning engines books", this is the literature you need, but please have close to you a "mechanics for dummies" in case you get lost with the formulas.
This book has some references to an ECU's software guidelines but no program example is presented.
The drawbacks: in some figures the letters are missing or misplaced making them a quiz.