[comp.unix.questions] books

dmm@bu-cs.UUCP (02/13/87)

I know the basics of unix, i.e. basic commands, how to create files, 
directories, copy files, etc. I would like to learn more about unix and
what it is capable of. Can anyone tell me what are the most useful things
about unix that I should learn about next? Also if you could recommend
some books and give me a brief description of what I can expect to learn
from them that would be very helpful. Of course bookstores have lots of
books on the subject, but being a novice and not being sure about what things
I should be learning next have made it impossible for me to reach a decision
on what to buy. I would greaty appreciate some advice on this.

movold@watdcsu.UUCP (02/14/87)

In article <4159@bu-cs.BU.EDU> dmm@bu-cs.BU.EDU (Diane Meuser) writes:
>I know the basics of unix, i.e. basic commands, how to create files, 
>directories, copy files, etc. I would like to learn more about unix and
>what it is capable of. Can anyone tell me what are the most useful things
>about unix that I should learn about next?

I recently bought a book which is an in-depth guide to using C Shell.
If you are a C Shell user, this is a good book for learning purposes
and for experienced users. The book is title 'The UNIX C Shell Field
Guide'.  It is written by Gail and Paul Anderson.  The publisher is
Prentice-Hall.
	 It starts out by describing some of the basic C Shell commands
and give some examples of there use.  It goes on the describe the
use of special meta characters and the creation and use of shell
scripts.  It is a well written and easy reading book with plenty
of examples.

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ferrara@louie.udel.EDU (02/18/87)

I am currently reading Tannenbaum's book, on Minix a Unix v7 work alike.
It seems to be very thorough discussion of Unix inside and out.

The title of the book is: Operating Systems -- Design and Implementation.
Published by Prentice - Hall. 

-- Ed

alex@am.sublink.org (Alex Martelli) (05/17/91)

dougy@hpsciz.sc.hp.com (Doug Yip) writes:
	...
:An excellent book for you to get started with UNIX system programming is
:"Advanced UNIX Programming" by Marc. J. Rochkind. The publisher is
:Prentice-Hall. It emphasizes more on the standard UNIX System V stuff.
	...
:P.S. Anyone out there know a good BSD system programming book other than the
:"Design & Implemntation of 4.3 BSD UNIX" ?

Well, I wouldn't really draw a parallel between the Daemon Book and
Rochkind - the 'internals' book for Sys V, parallel to the DB, is Bach.

Anyway, a reasonable introductory-to-intermediate book, covering partly
the same ground as Rochkind but with decent coverage of BSD extensions,
is David Curry's "Using C on the Unix System", in the O'Reilly Nutshell
Handbook series.  I wouldn't say it's as good as Rochkind, but then I
feel Rochkind is up there on Olympus, right alongside Kernighan and
{Ritchie, Pike}, Stroustrup's original C++ book, Koenig's "C trap and
pitfalls", Brooks' "Mythical Man-Month", Bentley's stuff, Allen's
"Anatomy of Lisp", Hennessy and Patterson's "Computer Architecture - a
Quantitative Approach" - in other words, of those classics one would be
happy to read for the sheer joy it gives, even if one had no special
interest in the subject matter, or no need to learn anything more
about it...

-- 
Alex Martelli - (home snailmail:) v. Barontini 27, 40138 Bologna, ITALIA
Email: (work:) martelli@cadlab.sublink.org, (home:) alex@am.sublink.org
Phone: (work:) ++39 (51) 371099, (home:) ++39 (51) 250434; 
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