The Art of UNIX Programming

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Unix ranks among the great engineering accomplishments of the last half of the twentieth century, and its heir--Linux--seems already imposing and still on its way to achieving its full potential. Eric S. Raymond argues in The Art of UNIX Programming that the excellence of Unix derives as much from the fact that it was (and continues to be) a community effort as from the fact that a lot of smart people have worked to design and build it. Raymond, best known as the author of the open-source manifesto The Cathedral and the Bazaar, says in his preface that this is a "why-to" book, rather than a "how-to" book. It aims to show new Unix programmers why they should work under the old "hacker ethic"--embracing the principles of good software design for its own sake and of code-sharing.

That said, a great deal of valuable practical information appears in this book. Very little of it is in the form of code; most of the practical material takes the form of case studies and discussions of aspects of Unix, all aimed at determining why particular design characteristics are good. In many cases, the people who did the work in the first place make guest appearances and explain their thinking--an invaluable resource. This book is for the deep-thinking software developer in Unix (and perhaps Linux in particular). It shows how to fit into the long and noble tradition, and how to make the software work right. --David Wall

Topics covered: Why Unix (the term being defined to include Linux) is the way it is, and the people who made it that way. Commentary from Ken Thompson, Steve Johnson, Brian Kernighan, and David Korn enables readers to understand the thought processes of the creators of Unix.

Customer Reviews:

compares different languages.......2007-02-27

Ever wonder about the relative popularity of various computer languages? Tired of the interminable discussions in newsgroups about which language is better than another? It turns out that the most distinctive feature of Raymond's book is Chapter 14. It gives a semiquantitative assessment of C, C++, Perl, Tcl, Python, Java and emacs Lisp, as of March 2003.

A fascinating and provocative look at the relative rise and fall. Raymond compares this to an earlier survey in 1997. He shows that C, C++, Java and Lisp have been roughly stable. While Tcl is declining. And Python rose impressively. He suggests that the Perl usage is under long term threat from Python, as the best writers in Perl might migrate to Python.

There is no coverage of C#. It did not exist in 1997 and scarcely so in 2003. Likewise for Ajax.

Very few computer books offer such assessments. Useful if you are going to commit to a particular language.

Changed the Way I Designed My Own Software Development.......2006-02-04

Learning what this book had to teach was a pivotal point in my software development career... it was the first time I came to an awareness of looking at HOW the design and development process occurred in my job, and really thinking about WHY we did certain things the way we did. My own development methods changed drastically after reading this book, and my own visible changes have had an impact on those that work with me (i.e. it got them thinking as well about how they did their development). ESR's book spent a fair amount of time in the details of some specific software, but those parts came across to me as examples backing up earlier points he had made rather being "I recommend using this software" endorsements. I've learned from ESR's writings that there's almost always an upper-level awareness to be discovered, whether he's explicitly making a point to back up something he's saying, or whether it's something implicit that steers your own thinking towards something he's said. I highly recommend this book to anyone who's been doing software development (especially in a group environment and steered/constrained by that group's processes) for at least a year, perhaps two. If you've been doing this kind of work for more than two years, and never thought deeply at WHY you design your software creations the WAY you do, it's time for you to pick up this book and see what you can glean from it.

Surpassed my expectations.......2005-07-24

When I first started reading this book, I expected to hear a considerable amount of Microsoft trashing and everything else that follows from fanatical Microsoft haters. However, what I found was an easy to follow book that illustrates many aspects of Unix programming, explains why they work, and shows examples of all of them.

The organization of the chapters is logical and the emphasis on the Unix philosophy helps with the flow of the book. Raymond starts out by enumerating the philosophy and writing a bit about each one. Many are universal, as "The Rule of Separation", "The Rule of Diversity" or "The Rule of Least Surprise" in user interfaces. However, many others are specific to Unix and its descendants such as "The Rule of Silence" and others. From there on, Raymond takes off to talk about how Unix is designed and implemented guided by the items of the Unix philosophy.

The book also includes a nice history of Unix section, which is pretty much the history of modern computing. Reading it made me all warm and fuzzy inside; it was both entertaining and informative. A must-read.

Where this book falls shortly is in some criticisms of non-Unix related topics. Object oriented programming is apparently not appreciated by Raymond. I don't agree with a lot of his claims about how object oriented programming over-complicates things. In my opinion, writing in procedural languages is messy stuff. Also, this man seems to think everything in Unix is simply perfect. Although a bit annoying at times, in many instances the result is positive becase his passion for the topic is clear.

Even though there is no code, it didn't take anything away from reading. The knowledge gained from it is HUGE because of the amount of material covered, and it WILL make you a better programmer, independent of whatever OS background you are from.

Where is the beef?.......2005-06-02

I join the other reviewer who complained about the book having no code at all.

What a misleading title.
The reason i came here to read the reviews is that i saw it on sale for just $10, and after going thru the pages found that it's not much use for a professional developer's day job.

Indispensable.......2005-03-28

I've been using, administering, and teaching UNIX since 1991 without the benefit of any formal instruction. That means I rely on books. I just got a desk copy of The Art of UNIX Programming and found it to be one of the very best UNIX books I've ever seen. Although it's not a text I'll strongly recommend it to students in all of my classes.

ESR's writing style is excellent. The information density is very high but the book is an easy and engaging read, in fact the first time through it was hard to put down. The inclusion of historical anecdotes, caustic comments, and even koans keep it lively. Technically it's rather high level with very little fine detail. For details consult UNIX for the Impatient.

The book is as much about using UNIX as it is about programming with UNIX. I suppose these points of view are inseparable, after all why bother to use UNIX if you don't want to tell your computer what to do? The point is this book is useful to non programmers and occasional programmers. ESR fills far more space discussing things like file formats, XML, shells, editors, and documentation than he does explaining C. Understanding how these pieces work and fit together is essential to using UNIX productively.

This is not a high school history book edited to be free of all content which might possibly offend someone. If you're a Windows partisan you'll have to get past more than a few uncomplimentary references. Even if you disagree, you can take the knocks as enlightening you on the considerable philosophical differences between UNIX and Windows. ESR also doesn't hesitate to point out areas of difficulty within UNIX, now I understand exactly why I have problems with vi and sendmail.cf.

This book is old school, but then so is UNIX itself. This book will help you understand the history of what went right, what went wrong, and why; and that will help you make better use of UNIX today and tomorrow.

Linux for Embedded and Real-time Applications, Second Edition (Embedded Technology)

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Not very helpful
Lack of details

Linux for Embedded and Real-time Applications, Second Edition (Embedded Technology)
Doug Abbott
Manufacturer: Newnes
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0750679328

Book Description

The open source nature of Linux has always intrigued embedded engineers, and the latest kernel releases have provided new features enabling more robust functionality for embedded applications. Enhanced real-time performance, easier porting to new architectures, support for microcontrollers and an improved I/O system give embedded engineers even more reasons to love Linux! However, the rapid evolution of the Linux world can result in an eternal search for new information sources that will help embedded programmers to keep up!

This completely updated second edition of noted author Doug Abbotts respected introduction to embedded Linux brings readers up-to-speed on all the latest developments. This practical, hands-on guide covers the many issues of special concern to Linux users in the embedded space, taking into account their specific needs and constraints.

Youll find updated information on:
The GNU toolchain
Configuring and building the kernel
BlueCat Linux
Debugging on the target
Kernel Modules
Devices Drivers
Embedded Networking
Real-time programming tips and techniques
The RTAI environment
And much more

The accompanying CD-ROM contains all the source code from the books examples, helpful software and other resources to help you get up to speed quickly. This is still the reference youll reach for again and again!

* 100+ pages of new material adds depth and breadth to the 2003 embedded bestseller.
* Covers new Linux kernel 2.6 and the recent major OS release, Fedora.
* Gives the engineer a guide to working with popular and cost-efficient open-source code.

Customer Reviews:

Not very helpful.......2007-01-05

The author uses old technology for a book published in 2006. He's too focused on his project and neglects to explain the over all picture. I didn't get much out of it.

Lack of details.......2006-08-16

It's a very good introductory book. It has a good organization of topics and brings a lot of references for further reading.
There are few things I dislike and hope that may be fixed in future editions.
There are examples that don't work at first because some includes are missing such as the parport.c example that I had to add a #include . Some other examples depend on tasks that might be difficult to achieve like running a kernel 2.6 on Red Hat 9.0 (I had to read a lot of forums to execute this task properly).
The price is high for a book that has less than 400 pages.

TeX Unbound: LaTeX and TeX Strategies for Fonts, Graphics, and More

Average customer rating:

MetaPost fans will *love* Chapter 13!
Best discussion on TeX/LaTeX and fonts yet
Is it a beginner's book? Is it an advanced text? I dunno.
A great resource for the font freaks

TeX Unbound: LaTeX and TeX Strategies for Fonts, Graphics, and More
Alan Hoenig
Manufacturer: Oxford University Press, USA
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 019509686X

Book Description

LaTeX is the premier software system used for presenting scientific and technical information on the printed page, being the system of choice for writers in mathematics, the sciences, computer science, and engineering. It is also increasingly used by nontechnical writers interested in superior printing and document presentation. Authors wishing to take full advantage of this powerful software often have questions that go beyond how to use the basic style files or commands. For example, how can you integrate any of the high quality commercial fonts that are available? How can you typeset mathematics in anything other than the original TeX fonts? How can you generate complex graphics for use in a LaTeX document? What Internet resources are available to a LaTeX author? How can you connect TeX and LaTeX to everyday office software? In general, writers need clear, accurate, and concise instructions, solutions, and explanations for common problems and situations. This unique book provides this assistance, containing many examples and summaries of procedures to follow. TeX Unbound will be the reference of choice for every writer wishing to express technical information.

Customer Reviews:

MetaPost fans will *love* Chapter 13!.......2001-12-05

Alan Hoenig's book is a real tour-de-force when it comes to discussing TeX's arcane font-handling. If you want to learn how to install fonts for use with TeX, this is the book for you. Virtual fonts, PostScript fonts, MetaFont +... they're all covered. Want to mix-and-match new maths typefaces -- you'll find nearly 30 pages of examples (the "Rogues' Gallery").

It is quite apparent, to me anyway, that the author has a love of typography and you'll find lots of examples and hints for good "typographic style".

The book abounds with examples of what is possible -- if you think "TeX = Maths only", think again. As this book shows, TeX is about fine typesetting -- whether mathematical or straight text.

It is, as others have commented, quite an eclectic mix of topics, but, for me, one topic makes the book's price worthwhile -- the coverage of MetaPost (John Hobby's graphics programming language). MetaPost is a little "tricky" to learn, so the fact that the author devoted a whole chapter to it (Chapter 13 -- some MetaFont too), is what made me buy the book.

Personally, I would like to see more MetaPost at the expense, perhaps, of some of the more exotic font material, but that's a personal preference. The MetaPost examples are well chosen, and well explained. If this book comes out in a second edition, I'd ask the author to (at least) double the size of the MetaPost chapter -- good introductory information on MetaPost programming is very hard to find :-(. Publishers, please publish a book about MetaPost!

Overall, this is not the sort of book you'd read in one sitting, but you'll certainly find yourself dipping into it on a regular basis to make use of the wealth of ideas, tips + tricks.

Nice one Professor Hoenig, but more MetaPost, please :-)

Best discussion on TeX/LaTeX and fonts yet.......1999-08-10

I'll agree that this book is a bit of a hodgepodge of issues on the TeX/LaTeX typesetting systems. One of the various topics covered, however, and as I recall it's also the most extensive part, is a comprehensive discussion on one of the most arcane of all TeX issues, that of fonts. Even after many years of experience as a fairly advanced end user, I realized, while reading that book, that there were, to my shame, countless details I had up-to-now failed to _really_ understand. The discussion on the use and installation of type-1 fonts alone, to my mind, is well worth the price.

The discussion on graphics, while interesting, cannot obviously be compared to the definitive work by Goosens, Rahtz et al., but it doesn't take anything away from my general appreciation: it's one of the few books on TeX/LaTeX in recent memeory that made me feel I was actually learning something I didn't know. Hoenig makes a point of using a rich, fluent, and extremely acurate prose which further enhances the reading enjoyment.

Is it a beginner's book? Is it an advanced text? I dunno........1999-06-10

I'll admit I'm just a LaTeX junkie who doesn't have a lot of time for plain TeX commands. I picked up this book because it looked as though it had some LaTeX stuff on fonts in it, and I was bored. Once again, I had recently skimmed my way through Knuth's "TeX Book" in yet another ill-fated effort to motivate myself to learn some plain TeX commands. ("\hsize" in TeX, "\hspace" in LaTeX--oh, I'll just confuse myself.) The short Appendix in this book (for which Hoenig is way too apologetic) which starts the reader out on TeX was much more fun to read, and I immediately sat down, picked up Knuth's bible to use as a reference, and re-coded some of my LaTeX documents into plain TeX, all the while muttering, "This isn't too onerous. Hmmmm, maybe in a couple of weeks I'll write my own TeX style set." The LaTeX Appendix is less successful as a primer, but that's okay because you aren't really buying this book for the appendicies. Or are you? The rest of the work deals with advanced topics regarding fonts and graphics and is set forth in lucid fashion with a good and concrete discussion of the NFSS. (Why is it that most of these TeX/LaTeX books are so vague and nebulous concerning fonts? This book proves that you can concisely write about TeX fonts without forcing the reader to read between the lines or piece together nuggets of wisdom from multiple sources.)

Sure, it's geared toward advanced TeX users, I think. But LaTeX afficianados should give it a look or at least buy it and photocopy that little Appendix to pass around to friends.

A great resource for the font freaks.......1998-07-22

Alan Hoenig's "TeX Unbound" is a very remarkable book which differs greatly from any other TeX-related book seen so far. This is not a book about using TeX or LaTeX; it is about related topics that are equally important to good typography, namely setting up and making proper use of PostScript fonts, and creating high-quality graphics illustrations with TeX-friendly methods.

The first five chapters provide a brief but comprehensive overview about TeX, LaTeX, METAFONT and METAPOST, with particular emphasis on how it all fits together, how the production cycle works, and what kinds of files are involved. While the material is generally adequate, it might be a little terse at times, and the coverage of recent TeX distributions and Internet resources is not quite as up-to-date as one might have wished.

The second part, comprising chapters 6--10, is one of the greatest strengths of "TeX Unbound" and delves deeply into the topic of fonts. Starting fr! om the basics of setting up a standard font family, it moves on to more and more fancy and extraordinary applications, covering a wealth of material you don't find anywhere else. For example, it explains how to generate special effects fonts, or how to set up a font family containing alternate character sets or symbols. This part is rounded off by a chapter on math fonts, followed by 30 pages of examples showing how various combinations of well-known text typefaces might be used together with the few choices of math fonts currently available.

Finally, the third part of _TeX Unbound_, comprising chapters 11--15, discusses graphics applications, with particular emphasis on TeX-friendly methods such as METAFONT and METAPOST, the PSTricks package, PicTeX, or MFpic.

If there is any other book that covers a similar range of topics as "TeX Unbound", it might be "The LaTeX Graphics Companion" which, however, sets different priorities.

In the area of fonts, &! quot;TeX Unbound" is clearly the winner. While "T! he LaTeX Graphics Companion" has a good coverage of the basics, "TeX Unbound" goes far beyond that, providing the deepest and most comprehensive coverage of the topic ever published so far.

In the area of graphics, both books are about equally good in their coverage of some of the best methods, but "The LaTeX Graphics Companion" covers a wider range of graphics applications, including quite a few methods you don't find in "TeX Unbound". Nevertheless, "TeX Unbound" provides enough to get you started.

Book Description

Specialisation in software has become a thing of the past. With the move towards graphical user interface programming, engineers must have a sound knowledge of several programming languages and for the first time most of the main technical languages are introduced in a single volume.

All the example programs included relate to real life applications to provide a long needed reference that students will find invaluable throughout their studies, and a definitive guide for professional developers requiring an insight into other languages. Using C++ and Pascal to provide a basic grounding in software development the author then goes on to introduce more advanced concepts such as object-orientated design through the development of C++. Sections on Visual Basic and 80X86 Assembly Language follow before Java, Windows, NT and DOS are introduced, finishing with an overview of the UNIX system.

Customer Reviews:

slightly outdated.......2004-12-31

The book is already outdated. The inclusion of Pascal was questionable, even in 1997. Outside some universities, Pascal has suffered a continual erosion of mindshare.

As for the choice of JavaScript as a scripting language, that still holds true today as a good choice. It is the dominant client-side scripting language for browsers, VBScript and JScript competitors notwithstanding.

The unix discussion could easily be modified to include linux. Minor changes here.

As for Microsoft DOS, it is a toss up whether this might still be discussed. Perhaps it might be replaced by an explanation of .NET?

Numerical Recipes : The Art of Scientific Computing with Unix Single Screen License

Average customer rating:

Mathematical function examples in Pascal
Rock Solid
Very bad programs. Stay away. Buy the book instead.
Very informative and very much fun to read

Numerical Recipes : The Art of Scientific Computing with Unix Single Screen License
William H. Press , Saul A. Teukolsky , William T. Vetterling , and Brian P. Flannery
Manufacturer: Cambridge University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: CD-ROM

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Book Description

The Numerical Recipes Code CD -ROM contains, in a single omnibus edition, all the source code for the routines and examples from: Numerical Recipes in Fortran 77: The Art of Scientific Computing (Second Edition), Numerical Recipes in Fortran 90: The Art of Parallel Scientific Computing, Numerical Recipes in C: The Art of Scientific Computing (Second Edition), both ANSI and K&R C, Numerical Recipes in Pascal: The Art of Scientific Computing,and Numerical Recipes Routines and Examples in BASIC. The ISO 9660 standard format CD-ROM includes HTML files that allow the use of any Web browser to navigate among all the program files. The CD-ROM also contains the complete public domain SLATEC Common Mathematical Library, a comprehensive collection of over 1400 mathematical and statistical routines. A UNIX one-screen code use license is included.

Customer Reviews:

Mathematical function examples in Pascal.......2002-06-11

This book was written in 1985 when Pascal was still taught in most colleges. This is part of series called "Numerical Recipes: The Art of Scientific Computing" which provide explanation and examples of how you can use the computer to help your work. This particular book does not go into detail about the math, but it gives you examples of routines used to solve your particular problem.

Some of the examples listed cover linear algebraic equations, Fourier methods, and partial differential equations. As mentioned, these are written in Pascal, so if you are not familiar with that programming language, these routines will not help you understand the math. If you need to write such routines, and you understand Pascal, this book will help you get ideas for your programming needs.

Rock Solid.......2001-08-17

Get the book w/disk. If you're programming numerical routines in C, there's no better place to go. I've used the first edition of the book w/software for more than 10 years and I'll keep using this stuff till the end. Translating from C to C++ has been a very easy task these 10 years. The important thing is that these recipes are fast, intelligently done, and the book (which you should get) explains everything, including the appropriate choice of recipe for your problem. I've used at least 30 of the routines from these guys and they have all been rock solid. If I had a problem with any of them, it was because I messed with the routine, not because there was a problem with the supplied software. I have yet to run into a numerical issue that these guys do not have a great solution for.

Anyone familiar with the book knows that using the book's dynamic memory allocation routines (provided in Appendix D in my edition of the book and included in the software) allows you to start arrays anywhere you like, 0,1, or 1001, it doesn't matter. These dynamic memory allocation routines also have other major advantages such as minimizing the needed memory for a large simulation by allowing you to easily create new arrays as you need them, discard others immediately when you are done with them, adjust the size of an array according to the need at a specific point in your program, etc. Their way of handling this is so convenient that I never have had a memory allocation need that it does not meet. But this is just one detail; the main thing is that their attention to detail is at this level throughout. I cannot imagining going to another reference.

Get the book, read it as needed (you don't need to read a lot to solve a specific programming problem), and do numerical analysis with as much ease as there is to be had in C or C++ programming.

Very bad programs. Stay away. Buy the book instead........1999-08-24

This is a disk with programs from the book Numerical Recipes. There are no comments in the code, help file is just an index of routines without any explanations. Routines are translations of Fortran code into C but authors did not make any effort to conform to standard C conventions. All the arrays start at 1 instead of 0 which makes the code useless the way it is written - user must modify it. No const attribute is ever used. And this is plain C so if you write a C++ code and hope for seeing exceptions or references, forget it. You are better off buying a book and writing routines you need based on the published code. It is really a shame that such a thing is sold (and tremendously overpriced). jstrompf@soil.nl in his review obviously meant the book and not the CD-ROM, his positive review is misplaced.

Very informative and very much fun to read.......1999-05-05

This is by far my favourite technical book. Somehow, they make the material very living and clear by their informal way of writing. This book is sometimes even fun, just to read it. Nowadays, I mainly use it for linguistic content when I'm writing a technical English text.

Average customer rating:

Art of UNIX Programming
ERIC S. RAYMOND
Manufacturer: Addison-Wesley Professional
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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