jgd@csd4.milw.wisc.edu (John G Dobnick) (12/17/87)
Just got this blurb (and order form) for
Howard W. Sams & Company
Hayden Books
UNIX & C
Libraries
Any comments on the quality/usefulness of this series?
The *covers* are cute! :-)
--
John G Dobnick
Computing Services Division @ University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee
UUCP: {ihnp4|uwvax|uwmacc}!uwmcsd1!jgd
INTERNET: jgd@csd4.milw.wisc.edu
"Knowing how things work is the basis for appreciation,
and is thus a source of civilized delight." -- William Safire
--
John G Dobnick
Computing Services Division @ University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee
UUCP: {ihnp4|uwvax|uwmacc}!uwmcsd1!jgd
INTERNET: jgd@csd4.milw.wisc.edu
"Knowing how things work is the basis for appreciation,
and is thus a source of civilized delight." -- William Safireeap@bucsb.UUCP (Eric Pearce) (12/20/87)
In article <3947@uwmcsd1.UUCP> jgd@csd4.milw.wisc.edu.UUCP (John G Dobnick) writes: >References: >Just got this blurb (and order form) for > Howard W. Sams & Company > Hayden Books > UNIX & C > Libraries >Any comments on the quality/usefulness of this series? I bought "UNIX System Security" a while ago for an outrageous price. I finally got around to reading it and was rather disappointed by the amount of new material I learned from reading it. It spends a long time on set-uid hazards, but most of this you can find out on your own. I felt I would have encountered and been able to handle most of the issues raised just by programming in the UNIX enviroment for a while, instead of paying for $40 the book. As for the other books in the series, I have looked at a few (I do not know the specific titles). They looked better, but suffer the same lack of detail that most of the UNIX books have that I have seen. They are still talking about options to the 'ls' command about 80% through the book, instead of the juicy details on how to do some low-level function. I have found this to be true even in books claiming to be "advanced" UNIX. The different versions of UNIX (SYSV vs BSD) certainly differ on the details, but I do not think this is a reason to skip them. I have not seen a decent book yet that explains "this is how to do it on SYSV" and "this is how to do it on BSD". They tend to generalize instead. The other books put out by Sams (on electronics, for example) are usually very good. -- ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- UUCP !harvard!bu-cs!bucsb!eap ARPANET eap@bucsb.bu.edu CSNET eap%bucsb@bu-cs
jra@jc3b21.UUCP (Jay R. Ashworth) (12/21/87)
In article <3947@uwmcsd1.UUCP>, jgd@csd4.milw.wisc.edu (John G Dobnick) says: > References: > Just got this blurb (and order form) for > Howard W. Sams & Company > Hayden Books > UNIX & C > Libraries > Any comments on the quality/usefulness of this series? > The *covers* are cute! :-) > John G Dobnick > UUCP: {ihnp4|uwvax|uwmacc}!uwmcsd1!jgd Aren't they, though. I have most of these books; Programming in C, the shell script book, the system admin book, and the UNIX book, and I have found them to be excellent references works, written well enough, in my opinion, to be used as texts. I think they are well worth the money; especially since their C book sells for $23 something in my market vs. $31.50 for K&R (yes, you read that right!). And, as you say, they also have cute covers. Good stuff. -- jra