[comp.newprod] New Nutshell Handbooks on terminfo, lint and COFF

tim@ora.UUCP (Tim O'Reilly) (12/17/88)

O'Reilly & Associates, Inc. is pleased to announce the
publication of three new Nutshell Handbooks:

   Termcap and Terminfo, by John Strang, Tim O'Reilly and Linda Mui
   Checking C Programs with Lint, by Ian Darwin
   Understanding and Using COFF, by Gintaras R. Gircys

A brief description of each of the books follows.

termcap and terminfo
by John Strang, Tim O'Reilly and Linda Mui
ISBN 0-93717522-4 (248 pages; $21.95)

The termcap and terminfo terminal databases are 
UNIX's solution to the difficulty of supporting a wide variety 
of terminals without writing special drivers for each terminal.  
Each database describes the special features of hundreds of terminals, 
together with a library of routines that allow 
programs to use those capabilities.  

This book provides all the information needed to read and
modify existing termcap or terminfo entries, or to write whole new ones 
from scratch.  It is a boon to system administrators and programmers.
Generally, a UNIX system uses either the termcap or the
terminfo database.  However, many hybrid systems support
both termcap and terminfo, and even more sites have 
both types of systems under the aegis of a single system 
administrator.  Documenting termcap and terminfo together 
provides a tremendous advantage to users 
converting terminal descriptions from one to the other, or 
to users accustomed to one who have to adjust to the other.

Contents include:

   o Terminal independence:  the need for termcap and terminfo 
   o Reading termcap and terminfo entries
   o Capability syntax
   o How users should initialize the terminal environment
   o Writing termcap and terminfo  entries
   o Converting between termcap and terminfo
   o The capabilities:  detailed description of each capability and how it
     is used.

About the authors:  John Strang, Tim O'Reilly & Linda Mui
are all part of the core Nutshell crew, and have had a hand
in many Nutshell Handbooks.  John has since left the
company, and gone on to become a doctor in San Diego.


Checking C Programs with lint
By Ian F. Darwin  
ISBN 0-937175-30-7 (72 pages; $12.95)

lint may be among the most misunderstood--and 
underestimated--tools in the UNIX programmer's workbox.
lint is a most useful tool, and one that no effective 
UNIX programmer can do without.

lint checks up on programs written in the C language.
It verifies a program or program segments against standard libraries.
It checks the code for common portability errors.
It tests the programming against some tried and true guidelines.
linting your code is a necessary (though not sufficient) step
in writing clean, portable, effective programs.
If your programs are to have a chance of being portable to 
UNIXes or to other C-capable computers besides the particular 
one you use, there are only two choices: use lint, or keep your 
code to yourself.  It's unfair to inflict code on the world--whether 
posting it to USENET or selling it for profit--without having 
run some basic portability checking on the code.

This book tells you how to use lint effectively.
Contents include:

   o Overview of using lint
   o Dealing with lint's concerns:  casting and delinting
   o lint comments
   o Using lint in detail:  command line options, using
     lint with make, rolling your own lint library
   o Public domain programs to extend lint
   o Under the hood:  an inside look at lint
   o Future directions
   o A very brief history of UNIX

About the author:  Ian Darwin has worked with computers since 1971
and with UNIX since 1979.  He taught and wrote the undergraduate
UNIX course for the University of Toronto.  Ian currently works
with SoftQuad, Inc. in Toronto, developers of UNIX-based
publishing solutions.


Understanding and Using COFF
By Gintaras R. Gircys.  
ISBN 0-937175-31-5 (164 pages; $21.95)

COFF--Common Object File Format--is the formal definition
for the structure of machine code files in the UNIX System
V environment.  All machine code files, whether fully linked
executables, compiled applications, or system libraries, are COFF
files.  

There is hardly a system-related task that does not require some
knowledge of COFF--from understanding assembly source
to implementing a proprietary system enhancement.  
This handbook explains the COFF data structure and
its manipulation.  

Contents include:

   o The basics of COFF 
   o Assembly code relocation process 
   o COFF file headers 
   o Relocation structures
   o The linking process 
   o The COFF system in UNIX 
   o Magic numbers 
   o The COFF symbolic debug system 
   o COFF and shared libraries 
   o Utilities and techniques for working with COFF files
   o A sample program to manipulate COFF 

About the author:  Gintaras Gircys twenty-year career in the
computer field includes seven years at Data General, and eight
years at NSC's Series 32000 UNIX effort.  Gintaras currently is a
technical information consultant working on Amdahl's mainframe
UNIX project.

For more information, or to order any of these books, call,
write, fax, or e-mail us at the addresses given below:

Jill Berlin (617) 527-4210 or (800) 338-NUTS
O'Reilly & Associates, Inc., Publishers of Nutshell Handbooks
981 Chestnut Street, Newton, MA 02164
UUCP:	uunet!ora!nuts      ARPA:   nuts@ora.uu.net
-- 
Tim O'Reilly (617) 527-4210 or (800) 338-NUTS
O'Reilly & Associates, Inc., Publishers of Nutshell Handbooks
981 Chestnut Street, Newton, MA 02164
UUCP:	uunet!ora!tim      ARPA:   tim@ora.uu.net