Earlier papers about self-propagating high-temperature synthesis (in short SHS) usually do not convey to non-specialists how to translate the basic facts and fundamental concepts of SHS into the realization of this method in terms, for instance, of particle size of the reactants, of thermal conductivity and mode of heating up of beds of articulate reactants; these differ substantially from the ones used for synthesis of solid compounds by conventional furnace methods. Moreover, in contrast to the energy saving features of SHS, less known is the fact that the specific mechanism of SHS reactions and the resulting nature of the products enable a simplification of processing of primary SHS products to materials. Knowledge of implications of the theory for the practice of SHS is important because the method has evolved into a technique which is being applied to the production of a wide variety of ceramic, intermetallic and composite materials. In order to illustrate these implications a number of examples, based mainly on investigations into SHS in solid-solid reactive systems, is discussed in the present paper.