Digital Signal Processing/Software tool
Digital Signal Processing is a field of study that combines both mathematical theory and physical implementation. It makes no sense to consider a digital system without asking oneself how it will be implemented. In the design and analysis phase, some general-purpose signal processing tools are available.
Matlab edit
MATLAB is an excellent (although expensive) tool for simulating systems, and for creating the ever-valuable "proof of concept". This book will make several references to MATLAB, but don't get confused: This book will not teach how to program in MATLAB. If you would like to learn MATLAB, check out the book MATLAB Programming.
There are other free alternatives to MATLAB, with varying degrees of code compatibility.
Octave edit
GNU Octave is a free and Open Source alternative to MATLAB. Octave can be obtained from http://www.octave.org. It endeavors to be MATLAB-compatible and largely it is (a lot of MATLAB code can be run using Octave, and vice versa), though some functionality is missing. For more information on Octave, see the Wikibook Octave Programming.
SciPy edit
SciPy is a Python-based set of libraries which allow to perform numeric calculations. As the preceding tools, it features a signal processing toolbox. Also, the python scripts can make use of matplotlib, a plotting library whose basic commands are very similar to MATLAB's.