[comp.unix.questions] Need a basic UNIX manual to learn UNIX usage, etc.

gph@hpsemc.UUCP (07/12/88)

(Yaakov Kayman) writes:

Dear UNIX People:

    Yaakov, 

    I don't know of a way to produce a manual from the system online,
    but as a new user, I have been using "The UNIX System" by Henry
    McGilton and Rachel Morgan.

    I gives enough information about the Bourne shell to get you
    started, and discusses ed, ex, vi, and regular expressions, and
    it is easy to find things in.

    Hope this helps,


		  -gph

bph@buengc.BU.EDU (Blair P. Houghton) (07/12/88)

In article <1412YZKCU@CUNYVM> YZKCU@CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU (Yaakov Kayman) writes:
>
>    Is there a reasonable way to produce an introductory manual from
>'man' or some other (set of) command(s)? If so, will the manual size
>be in the "low hundreds of pages" range, or more like thousands?

It's quicker if you take the pages out of /usr/man/cat* (at least
that's what it's called 'round hyar...) since it doesn't have to be
deroff'ed before you lpr it.

But then, if'n you don't have the un-?roff'ed pages...

Plug (or so Prentice-Hall will think):

	Kernighan & Pike, _The UNIX Programming Environment_, 1984

gives some help ("not $23 worth of help, but some..." as Professor
Hubbard has remarked.)  It starts out with simple piddle like
the "cat" command and runs up to system calls.

Oddly, neither it nor K&R mention the word "socket", WHY!?!

				--Blair

jsp@sp7040.UUCP (John Peters) (07/13/88)

In article <1412YZKCU@CUNYVM>, YZKCU@CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU (Yaakov Kayman) writes:
<^>     Is there a reasonable way to produce an introductory manual from
<^> 'man' or some other (set of) command(s)? If so, will the manual size
<^> be in the "low hundreds of pages" range, or more like thousands?

Definitely thousands of pages if you get the whole set.

<^>     Barring the production of a manual thru use of the UTS system
<^> itself, I would like some recommendations of manuals to
<^> 
<^>     1) give a newcomer a good overview of UNIX, and
<^> 
<^>     2) enable a newcomer to start using the UNIX commands
<^>        intelligently.
<^> 
	Admittedly I saw this book after I had figured out a good thing but
if you are looking for a book (and already know 'C') on how to both use
the system commands, do a little command language (shell) programming and
learn some about (maybe more than some) programming in the UNIX environment,
I would recommend "The UNIX Programming Environment" by Kernigan and Pike.
An Excelent, concise and easy to understand tutorial on UNIX basics.

				--  Johnnie  --

sirius@cup.portal.com (07/13/88)

In Article: <1412YZKCU@CUNYVM> YZKCO@CUNYVM.CUNNY.EDU  Writes:
>   1) give a newcomer a good overview of UNIX, and
>
>   2) enable a newcomer to start using the UNIX commands
>      intelligently.

   A good book to try is "UNIX(tm) user's handbook" from Weber Systems,
Inc. Staff for $16.95.  It's nothing TOO great, but it is really good to get
you started.  It gets fairly in-depth with most of the commands you will
use a lot, and spends a good bit of time talking about the editors.
(2 chapters, one on ed & one on vi).
   I found it fairly comprehensive, and took me a while to "outgrow".

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fyl@ssc.UUCP (Phil Hughes) (07/15/88)

In article <810011@hpsemc.HP.COM>, gph@hpsemc.HP.COM (G. Paul Houtz) writes:
> (Yaakov Kayman) writes:
>     I don't know of a way to produce a manual from the system online,
>                        I have been using "The UNIX System" by Henry
>     McGilton and Rachel Morgan.

>     I gives enough information about the Bourne shell to get you
>     started, and discusses ed, ex, vi, and regular expressions, and
>     it is easy to find things in.

McGilton and Morgan is one of the best out there for the "technical
beginner".  For the non-technical person we recommend Exploring the
UNIX Environment by Irene Pasternack, published by Bantam.
My opinion is probably biased as Irene is one of the founders of SSC.
The book is based on what Irene learned teaching one of our classes,
UNIX for Non-Technical People.  She was a non-computer person who
complained about how all the books were for nerds so I suggested
she write a book for "real people". She did.  And it was a nice addition
to our line of publications for nerds.


Phil Hughes, SSC, Inc. P.O. Box 55549, Seattle, WA 98155  (206)FOR-UNIX
    uw-beaver!tikal!ssc!fyl or uunet!pilchuck!ssc!fyl or attmail!ssc!fyl


-- 
Phil    uunet!pilchuck!ssc!fyl 

gwyn@brl-smoke.ARPA (Doug Gwyn ) (07/29/88)

In article <403@buengc.BU.EDU> bph@buengc.bu.edu (Blair P. Houghton) writes:
>Oddly, neither it [K&P] nor K&R mention the word "socket", WHY!?!

Why should they?  K&R is about the C programming language,
and K&P is about elegant use of UNIX.  Sockets have nothing
to do with either.