Product Description
The bestselling guide to assembly language-now updated and expanded to include coverage of Linux

This new edition of the bestselling guide to assembly programming now covers DOS and Linux! The Second Edition begins with a highly accessible overview of the internal operations of the Intel-based PC and systematically covers all the steps involved in writing, testing, and debugging assembly programs.

Expert author Jeff Duntemann then presents working example programs for both the DOS and Linux operating systems using the popular free assembler NASM. He also includes valuable information on how to use procedures and macros, plus rare explanations of assembly-level coding for Linux, all of which combine to offer a comprehensive look at the complexities of assembly programming for Intel processors.

Providing you with the foundation to create executable assembly language programs, this book:
* Explains how to use NASM-IDE, a simple program editor and assembly-oriented development environment
* Details the most used elements of the 86-family instruction set
* Teaches about DEBUG, the single most useful tool you have as an assembly language programmer
* Examines the operations that machine instructions force the CPU to perform
* Discusses the process of memory addressing
* Covers coding for Linux

The CD-ROM includes:
* Net-Wide Assembler (NASM) for both DOS and Linux
* NASM-IDE, a command shell and code editor for DOS
* ALINK, a free linker for DOS programming
* All program code examples from the book ... Read more

Customer Reviews (49)

Brilliant Book
This is a book I would highly recommend, and already have recommended, to anyone with an interest in what goes on under the hood of computers.It's written very clearly, starts at the very begining and assumes nothing.Having said that, if you have some knowledge you won't mind reading through the bits you already know because the book is very humerous and enjoyable to read.Definitely the best text book I have read in a long time.

Excellent Beginner Assembly Language Book
I found this book to be very good and although I am using FreeDos 1.0 it is accurate all the way. As Free Dos is a clone of MSDOS you get all the
benefits from the book, like being able to access video memory directly, use the BIOS and DOS interrupts, and learn how to program in Assembly Language. Check out FreeDos org if you are a DOS fan.

I recommend this book for beginning Assembly Language programmers.

A Dissapointment
I started a personal campaign to teach myself assembly language, and searched out books that might help.I bought this book because I own a number of "Step-By-Step" books and the blurb sounded good.Unfortunatly, it turned out to be a dissapointment.

The author prides himself on the fact that he uses an "unusual" method to teach a hard subject, and equally proud that he will not do a "complete" job.And then proceeds to work on chapter after chapter of thin analogy without actually getting to real assembly programming.Now I'm all for "unusual" methods of teaching, but only when they actually work.Reading this book left me more confused than ever.

And of course, to top it off, it's about 10 years old.

I really hate to spend more time on this book, but I wanted to express at least a little bit of my opinion.If I would recommend a book, this other one is worth the money.I even found out that ASU uses it as a textbook, and it's cheaper on amazon.

Assembly Language for Intel-Based Computers (5th Edition)

Additionally, I'd do a google search for winasm, radasm and masm32.All three have wonderful forums to help people learn how to create assembly programs.

THIS BOOK SHOULD BE TITLE "PRE-ASSEMBLY LANGUAGE" !!!
This book is a MUST for anyone taking Assembly Language in a computer science class. Most books on assembly language leave out some VERY important information. Most programming languages are basically the same and require the same logic to use. There is a an important difference between assembly language and other languages like C or Java.

Just like a procedural language like C and an object-oriented languages like C++ or Small Talk requires a difference thought process, so does Assembly Language versus C++ or C#. Jeff does a masterful and humorous job of bridging that gap.

This book shouldn'tbe titled "Assembly Language Step by Step" it should be called "Pre-Assembly Language." The book actually teaches very little Assembly Language, instead, it teaches foundational corner stones such as memory models, CPU function, memory access, binary and hexadecimal numbering systems, and registers. These things are generally glossed over in most text books, yet end up being the most important part. Jeff realized this flaw in other books and wrote this classic. The time to get this book is a semester BEFORE you take a class in Assembly Language, THEN that class in Assembly Language will make more sense. Especially if your going to learn Assembly Language on Intel's 80x86 architecture.

If you're going to learn MIPS or RISC processor assembly language, I'd still recommend Jeff's book. But, I'd also get "SPARC Architecture, Assembly Language Programming, & C" by Richard P. Paul. Richard does a great job like Jeff, but orients his text toward RISC computers.

I HAVE A COUPLE OF WARNINGS: Jeff recommends "Mastering Turbo Assembler" by Tom Swan as the next step. This recommendation is seriously out of date. You can't by Borland Turbo-Assembler new anymore, and the book deals with mostly 16-bit code. Instead, you should get "Assembly Language for Intel-Based Computers" by Kip Irving. This text is up to date with 32-bit code.

Jeff also recommends a book by Michael Abrash. Though Mike's "Black Book" was a great text, it's out of date. I'd recommend that instead you buy "Code Optimization: Effective Memory Usage" by Kris Kaspersky since it's more up to date..

IMPORTANT TO PURCHASERS: Jeff's book "Assembly Language Step by Step" comes with a disk with NASM and programs examples. Unfortunately, they're "READ-ONLY" when you copy them from the disk to the hard drive. You have to change the attribute on every single file to get the program to work. Still NASM and the NASM-IDE are a great addition to the book. If you remove the "READ-ONLY" attribute, you should have no problem.

I hope Jeff will come out with a Third edition to this classic. "Assembly Language Step by Step" should be required as a prerequisite to any Assembly Language class.

First 150 pages rambling, without a hint on the real thing.
At page 151, author said "That's why I began at the real beginning, and took 150 pages to get to where the other guys start."

That is really true, 150 pages wasted!!!

The author is trying to be funny, but actually made it look even worse.
If you are interested in assembly language, there are several online tutorials which are actually much better than this book. ... Read more

Product Description
Korn Shell Programming by Example is a straight-forward, nuts and bolts book that will become a standard in the libraries of Unix administrators everywhere because of its real-life examples, progressive style, and lack of unnecessary fluff. Based on the Korn shell, it is an essential reference for administrators on how to program their system, and it is also beneficial for those new to Unix who need to know how to automate their system. Most of all, Korn Shell Programming by Example teaches and arms readers with the ability to solve problems they might encounter. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Easy to understand
This book provides an overview of UNIX-LINUX commands. There are not a lot ofcomplete ksh scripts. Korn shell users might want to also consider "Korn Shell: Programs for Your Survival at Work" by Larry L. Smith. Some of the examples in Randal K. Michael's "Mastering UNIX Shell Scripting" are also helpful.

worth its weight in gold!
This book is essential for a unix system administrator student or one who is just starting out. It has the most complete and thorough coverage of daily system routines such as cron and job control. I have not been able to find such coverage of process handling in any of my several system administration books. I have read a few books on shell scripting but this one covers not only how to script but a great deal of knowledge surrounding shell scripting on a daily system administration practical basis. If you want a great reference tool, buy this book.

Good Book for Total Beginners Only
I was disappointed in this book.Most of the book covers things that directly relate to Unix, and not necessarily to korn shell programming.However, if you are new to unix and/or new to korn shell scripting then this should be a good book for you. ... Read more

Product Description
Many of the most popular programming tools on UNIX are free.They offer a great deal of power within an operating system that can be customized and tuned in almost unlimited ways.This book and CD combination is a complete package for programmers who are new to UNIX or who would like to make better use of the system.The tools were put together by Cygnus Support, Inc., and Cyclic Software, companiesthat provide support for free software.Contents include GNU Emacs, gcc, C and C++ libraries, gdb, RCS, and make.The bookprovides an introduction to all these tools for a C programmer. Previous experience with UNIX is not required.The CD-ROM contains binaries for several popular UNIX systems, includingSun SPARC4 running SunOS 4.1.3, Sun SPARC4 running Solaris 2.4,HP 9000/700 running HPUX, IBM RS/6000 running AIX 3, SGI Iris/Indigorunning Irix 5.3, and Alpha running Digital UNIX.Complete source codeand scripts for configuration, building, and installation are also included.Amazon.com Review
One of the great benefits of Unix is the vast array of freeand inexpensive software tools that are available for theplatform. Programming with GNU Software provides an overview ofhow C and C++ programmers can use some of these tools: the source-codeeditor Emacs, the gcc compiler, gdb debugger, gprof profiler, and theRCS version-control system. The book offers a quick-paced tutorialthat, unlike some introductions to Unix tools, is particularly focusedon the needs of C programmers. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (11)

I wanted to like this book
I really liked the concept of this book.To be proficient as a C programmer, you have to know your way around a lot more than just the C programming language.You have to know your editor, your compiler, your debugger, your libraries, your build environment, your source control environment, and your profiler.If you're programming on Windows, all of this is contained in your IDE, but in Unix, all of these tools are separate.To that end, this book covers emacs, gcc, libc, gdb, make, rcs and gprof.There are entire books about each subject but (with the exception of emacs) I always felt that a whole book on any of these topics was overkill.So collecting them together in one book is a great idea.

The problem is that this book is just over 200 pages long.That's not nearly enough space to do justice to this many tools, especially since "programming with GNU software" wastes 10% of its space advertising for a (now defunct) software support company.This book should have been twice as long - the final three chapters on make, rcs and gprof encompass just 16, 13 and 11 pages, respectively.

Still, I must admit that I did learn at least one new thing from each chapter - the authors do seem to know their material well.Also, although the book is pretty old at this point, it's still relevant (almost all of the examples worked as advertised even as I write this in 2009), and I'm not aware of any printed work that brings together so many important topics.I can't say avoid it, since it beats the online documentation (at least in presentation, if not in depth), but be prepared for a bit of a let-down if you decide to pick this one up.

The book serve its purpose i.e. to use GNU software
What are the typical things that a programmer do in their job? Open a text editor to write codes, compile and debug. That's it. I was used to writing code in IDE running on Windows, everything seem to be work seamlessly and easily. One click, the program compiles. Another click, it run. Click again, it adds breakpoint etc. However, most GNU software run in Unix/Linux, which is complete different story. Argh, there wasn't icon that I could click and open up the text editor. I gotta write command line to compile each files, then link them to build the entire project. This is the purposes of this book - telling you how to write code in EMACS, to build code using command line and makefile, debug with gdb and source management using RCS. It doesn't tell you how to install and administrate Unix/Linux. If you are absolute beginner in Unix/Linux, this book will save you lots of time wondering how to build your Hello World program.

Excellent intro
This does a good job of covering the material it is intended to cover.

Good overall view
This book offers the >HIGHLIGHTS< of the GNU programming tools. E.g. Makefiles are covered by this book, but you wouldn't find all details of make in this book.

So, this is a really nice book, to get you started with the GNU Toolchain, but don't expect to see all ins and outs in this book of every topics.

It's a nice started book, but you also need to buy a specialized book of the topics you want to pay special attention.

one of my better buys
What I love about this book is that it covers subjects that you run into all the time in unix but none of my other books say much about. For example the link editor, libraries, c command line options. In particular I like the sections on gdb and gprof. Super useful. The intro has a section on unix and setting up your environmental variables, another neglected topic. The only section that didn't interest me is the section on emacs since I am a vi guy. But, it doesn't hurt to have it either... In sum, if you are a true UNIX guru, you may already know all this stuff, but, if you are an aspiring guru, like myself, this is pure gold. ... Read more

Product Description
Qt is a C++ class library that lets you write GUI applications that run on UNIX, Windows 95/98, and Windows NT. Programming with Qt is much easier than programming with Motif, and more important, Qt applicationsare inherently portable. This indispensable guide explains all thefeatures of Qt and teaches you how to take full advantage of thispowerful, easy-to-use, cross-platform toolkit.While programming with Qt is straightforward and feels natural onceyou get the hang of it, the learning curve can be steep. Qt comes withexcellent reference documentation, but beginners often find the tutorial isn't enough. That is where this book steps in. Programming with Qt guides you through the steps of writing aQt application by showing you how to write a simple paint application. It presents all of the GUI elements in Qt, along with advice about whenand how to use them, so that you can make full use of the toolkit. To help deepen your understanding, it includes exercises with completelyworked out answers. There's also lots of information for seasoned Qtprogrammers, including material on advanced 2D transformations,drag-and-drop, and writing custom image file filters.Amazon.com Review
Programming with Qt offers an excellent introduction tothe Qt toolkit, a powerful C++ graphical user interface (GUI) librarythat allows developers to create interfaces that run under both Unixand Windows. The book first looks at the strengths of the Qt library:it provides excellent cross-platform support, good performance, andease of use for the C++ programmer.

After a basic application, thebook moves onto the event model in Qt, which uses signals and slots toattach events to code. The author demonstrates that Qt is a remarkablysophisticated user interface library. Early sections examineprogramming menus, including pop-up menus, basic widgets, or controls(such as labels and listboxes), and more complex controls (such assliders, progress bars, listviews, and tables).

Next the bookpresents material on Qt's built-in dialogs (for message boxes andopening and saving files) and layout managers. The author investigatesQt's container classes (such as arrays and dictionaries) and offers alot of material on 2-D graphics, including printing, saving, andloading images.

Later chapters look at validating text and workingwith files and directories, with tips on important topics such asfocus handling, internationalization, portability, and debugging. (Theauthor even shows you how to work with Qt in Perl and reviews severalQt GUI builders that help automate design.)

Filled with expertadvice and sample code, this guide makes a strong case that both Unixand Windows developers should try out Qt. --Richard Dragan ... Read more

Customer Reviews (11)

A Bit Outdated but can be a useful tool.
This book is a great book for one with a lot of C++ experience in programming and for one who likes to hunt and peck at debugging. But, unless one has an older version of Qt, it can be quite trying because so much has changed in the newer versions.

I would say this book is generally inexpensive and can be useful as a backup reference source. I was able to get all the way up to the Scribble program using the later version of Qt3. But after that, it became very difficult to upgrade the code to Qt3.

The three star rating I gave this book is only because it is outdated. It is a good book and delves into the code in detail, however outdated.

Good addition, but short on pithy examples
This is indeed a very good book but it can't compete with Solin's "Qt Programming" (published by Sams) as an introduction (at least not in it's present 1st edition..perhaps the soon to be published 2nd edition will be such an improvement that this situation will change, but I think that's unlikely). Depending on your budget and the improvements that come into edition 2, this is a worthwhile addition to any Qt programmer's bookshelf.

The main weakness of the book is the shortage of succinct and simple examples that illustrate the various Qt classes and concepts. (This is where Solin, on the other hand excels). There is one hefty example (Qtscribble) that is presented in various versions in the chapters 2 and 3. The rest of the book presents only code snippets and (worthwhile) discussions. Edition 1 is also quite outdated so waiting for edition 2 is very advisable.

Easy C++ GUIs with qt
Easy reading introduction into GUI programming with qt in C++. The book focuses on qt without applying C++ exception handling or the standard template library. It also does not explain too deeply the workings behind qt's callback system, but just, how to use it. After reading the book I could immediately make a GUI on Linux. Earlier it took me much longer to do the same thing with Motif. The qdesigner which comes with qt2.2.0 takes away a lot of work. The book also explaines other capabilities of qt than the GUI main topic (e.g. socket handling class, qt container classes, etc.). The help pages of the new qdesigner will also help one in applying the teaching of this book.

Out of date, LOTS OF ERRORS, not enough depth
This book was useful to me as at the time there really were not other QTbooks except TrollTech's Website.However, beware of this book.It hasMANY MANY typos and major mistakes, many of which are in the programmingexamples.

As a good typist, I generally like to type in programmingexamples as it makes me read and think about the code - rather than justblindingly copying it.Beware, there are MANY mistakes in the source code. Several do NOT compile!I spent a long time finding mistakes.I evensent the fixes to the author and the publisher.They thanked me the firstfew times, and then never replied to my later postings.You figure theywould have appreciated all of them AND should have pointed out othermistakes before I ran into them (since others must have pointed out thesemistakes as well).

Even though signals/slots are covered these are SUCH aLARGE component of Qt that the book does not even begin to really discussthe complexities of them enough.To be fair, the author points this out,but to not deal in detail with signals/slots when learning Qt is a bighandicap.Not dealing with signals/slots in detail with LOTS of EXAMPLESis sort of a cop-out.

Needs more depth
I found this book to be clearly written, and not difficult to follow and succinct, and not sufficient to answer enough of my programming questions to feel comfortable creating my own programs.You definitely need to studythe Troll Tech-provided documentation to go very far beyond the book inprogramming, but the documentation reads like it was written as areference, for people who understand but simply need a reminder.The bookneeds about two hundred more pages explaining examples and criticalsubjects like slot-signal interactions, layouts and many of the widgetsmore completely.

This book makes a good overview, but needs more depth. At the time, it was about the only book available, so I cannot say that itwas a mistake to get the book when I did.I hope that other books comingout on Qt have more depth and more complete explanations. ... Read more

Product Description
Covers how the Windows shell works and how it can be enhanced by using existing C++, MFC, and ATL skills. Discusses how to customize taskbars, menus, toolbars, views, and more. CD-ROM contains examples of C++ Wizards and Tools with supporting source code and an extensive library of ready-to-run sample code. Softcover. DLC: Microsoft Windows (Computer file). ... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

Good starting point for shell programming...
I picked this book up recently as a reference for a NSE project I'm working on. So far I've found the book excellent in that capacity. Whether or not the book will be useful to you depends on the amount of hand holding you need. As far as getting to relevant information quickly and a layout that lets chapters stand on their own; my needs were meet and I'm glad I purchased the book.

Another reviewer mentioned that the install CD doesn't work. The problem was actually a glitch with install shield and on some machines the REG entry describing the location of VC++ wizards is missing so the path is invalid and install shield reports your out of space in the destination folder(bla bla bla). But if you have the technical ability to copy the INCLUDE and LIB directories to your hard drive and add them to VC++ directories under options, and copy the wizard (AWX) files to the appropriate directory, you'll be ok - and if that's too difficult, you probably shouldn't be messing with the windows shell anyway.

This is of course detailed on Scott Seely's web page and he provides and email address for you to contact him with any questions. I did in fact email when I got stuck building an extension that was not backed by a directory structure and streamed IO through a java app to provide virtual remote access to a server through explorer; he responded quickly and was very helpful.

Anyone who is interested in these topics should also check out the newsgroup microsoft.public.platformsdk.ui_shell on server msnews.microsoft.com

Great book
I really wanted to "wow" my friends by customizing the Windows shell.I bought this book and was able to do all sorts of great stuff.I now have my own screensavers running and a shell extension that I wrote which displays the Pokemon cards I've collected.The whole book was pretty easy to understand.

Mom always said if I don't have anything nice to say....
This book was awful. While it does cover a lot of useful topics it doesn't cover them well. The explanations of the Windows API functions were easier to understand in the MSDN documentation. Other then that the book was mostly realy bad wrapper classes for these functions. They were horribly over complicated, it took him 2 or 3 classes to make icon in the system tray and that didnt even include any mention of a callback funcion for handling menu's.
Also the CD doesn't install. In a newsgroup where people asked him about it, he said you had to have VC++ 6 because it checks for some stuff when you try and. Yet I do and have tried it on about 4 differant computers with no luck. You can still use the examples with some effort and spare time.
The only thing I realy found this book good for is as a jumping off point. With the MSDN documentation if you are trying to do something you haven't before (such as adding/removing taskbar buttons), it's hard to get anywhere. So I grab this book, look in table of contents, go to section on the taskbar, find just one fuction i can look up in the dev studio docs and I'm all set with that from there on out.

Mom always said if I don't have anything nice to say....
This book was awful. While it does cover a lot of useful topics it doesn't cover them well. The explanations of the Windows API functions were easier to understand in the MSDN documentation. Other then that the book was mostly realy bad wrapper classes for these functions. They were horribly over complicated, it took him 2 or 3 classes to make icon in the system tray and that didnt even include any mention of a callback funcion for handling menu's.
Also the CD doesn't install. In a newsgroup where people asked him about it, he said you had to have VC++ 6 because it checks for some stuff when you try and. Yet I do and have tried it on about 4 differant computers with no luck. You can still use the examples with some effort and spare time.
The only thing I realy found this book good for is as a jumping off point. With the MSDN documentation if you are trying to do something you haven't before (such as adding/removing taskbar buttons), it's hard to get anywhere. So I grab this book, look in table of contents, go to section on the taskbar, find just one fuction i can look up in the dev studio docs and I'm all set with that from there on out.

Simplifying the Shell Game
This is an eminently practical approach to Windows Shell programming. Itis most useful as a reference that sheds light on the intricacies of thisprogramming realm. ... Read more

Product Description
An expert guide written for intermediate to advanced Linux programmers.Covers how to program core systems, user interfaces, device drives, networks, and much more. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (17)

useful for people new to Linux programming
This is a good book to have if you are new to Linux programming.I found it a handy reference when needing to write basic Linux test applications.

finally all together
this book collects all informations about Linux, that surely exist yet singularly, but all together it's better for your understanding.

Finally, a comprehensive introduction to Linux programming
Those familiar with Linux know how obtuse its documentation can be.Anyone who has tried to compile Linux software will appreciate the additional information about what is going that is provided in this excellent text.You are bound to be inspired to try some highly educational examples.For those who want to try programming, this is an indespensible aide.

Unfortunately, I found some errors that are hard to spot.You may be luckier.

Good solid introduction to Linux Programming
It is rather sad to see a good book like this one get beaten-up because of the "non existant" CD ROM that the author refers inthe text. As mentioned in other reviews, the code can be DOWNLOADED!

The writing is lucid and easy for newbies to grasp. The author takes you from a "novice" level to an intermediate+ level with good coverage of topics like System programming and IPC.

I must admit though, I havent read the other books suggested by the other reviewers - so am not in a position to compare them. But this book suit me fine, and I didnt have to go to look elsewhere.

Definately a MUST BUY!

A good book for newbies to start with.
As I was going to my grand mother's home with a friend of mine, preparing myself to pass one week without having much to do (Yes, I am one of those geeks), my friend given me this book to overcome the tedium I was about to face. I've read most of this book continuously in 3 days, I've skipped all the parts of the book concerning X-windows development as I don't use it and I sure will not going to use it unless demanded. I found the book very interesting; the author has a very involving writing style. The book covers mostly C programming and has some chapter(s) on Java and shell scripting. There was sub-chapters which weren't needed and chapters which were needed and weren't there. For example, the book explains you how to use ioctl and set flags equal to those done by chattr(1), but it's only one example on the ioctl interface, I was actually interested in this set of ioctl but, it seemed to me needless to be covered as an example of ioctl()s. On the other hand, I found a lot of explanations lacking on the sockets part of the book. For example, I don't remember reading about the poll() interface, which is far better than select() system call explained in chapter. 11. There was also one chapter completely devoted on writing documentation and the general licenses which I found off-topic for a programming book, but nevertheless interesting to read. The introduction to the GNU tools are a must read, and I recommend this book for anyone starting a career or with just plain interest in programming for this operating system. I must say that when I've read the book, I knew a great part of what I was about to read and that I wasn't completely clueless to what I was reading. (Sorry for any incoherencies in my review, English ISN'T my native language). ... Read more

Product Description
This complete toolbox of techniques shows you how to harness the open-source power of Linux -- and create world-class Internet applications. Offering a step-by-step approach to building an e-commerce site, a human resources site, bringing corporate data online, and more, expert Web developers Christopher Jones and Drew Batchelor explain the complexities of 3-tier Web applications, distributed architecture, and object-oriented programming -- and demonstrate how to use open source tools such as Perl, XML, and Java to build scalability, flexibility, and performance into your Internet site. Amazon.com Review
In Open Source Linux Web Programming, authors Christopher A. Jones and Drew Batchelor have written a noteworthy text to enhance the conceptual and functional proficiencies of beginning Web programmers. Perhaps of more value, they describe the Internet from a viewpoint that would benefit the mildly confused information managers whose technical generation gap makes the state of the art seem like an ongoing jumble of acronyms of clients, servers, interfaces, and markup languages.

The first two-thirds of the book reads like a well-thought-out college syllabus for a single-semester course in Web programming. Revealing their preferences for Perl and XML, Jones and Batchelor introduce the pieces of Web programming with a potentially deceptive mix of the practical and the theoretical.

In a series of compact 50-page chapters, the authors move with laudable efficiency through Web architecture, the Apache server, Perl and its uses in the CGI applications, and to HTML and its generalization as XML. The course ends with an intriguing pedagogical project: a client-based Web content administrator with XML. Does that seem like a security problem for real-world applications? No doubt, but Jones and Batchelor never address security problems of any kind. They are justified in ignoring security as long as their students and readers are planning to study Internet security in later classes or books.

The final third of the book introduces a forward-looking model of the Internet: Java applets and the Java/XML interface. While XML belongs more to the future than the present, the future is clearly now for Java. The final chapters on server error-handling and Web site administration are little more than an annotated outline of key issues with bits of code. These chapters should be browsed for nuggets of practical advice, but the authors' tutorial energies are spent on XML applications and run dry before the practical aspects of Web management are addressed.

In a quirky but unobjectionable way, Jones and Batchelor and their editors at M&T Books have fathomed and met the need for a hurry-up guide to Web programming. Security, databases, and auxiliary applications like PHP3 are missing, but not missed. --Peter Leopold ... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

Scarily Inaccurate
I don't know anything about the subject matter covered in the later chapters, but the Perl that the authors demonstrate in chapters 3 to 7 is some of the most badly written and buggy Perl that I have ever seen. Many of the example programs won't even compile as they have typos in them that would have been caught if the book had been given the most cursory glance by a technical editor. I searched the IDG (sorry, 'Hungry Minds') web site to see what errata had been made available, but there didn't seem to be any.

why this book , should be re-written
i belive this book lacked of information about database information and reference to C

WEB programming and dont talk about Serlvet, C, etc...
When i bought this book i was looking for a whole sight of the tools that i can find in opensource, not only a few... this book needs a roadmap view.

Why? theres is no reference for C or JAVA. Why? theres norefence to modules for Apache? Why? theres no references to JDBC,DBD/DBI, databases in general....

Anyway a good book? but with aquite good aproach to the problem

Great web techniques.Exceptionally well-written book .
This book is a true eye-opener for any web programmer.Everybody has heard of, experiment with, and develop in Perl, Java, XML, Apache and Linux, but I haven't not seen any book that explains how to combine these"open source" technologies together in such an original way untilI read this book!

For example, the authors don't just show you howto program in Perl, but they actually teach you NEW cutting-edge techniquessuch as developing n-tier, component-based, object-oriented applications(separating logic from content from presentation).The authors take youslowly through the steps of building components for the "header","footer", "navigation bar", "content", and"template" with plenty of commented code for each component,leading finally to a complete e-commerce catalog site!(No traditional CGIprogramming here).

I actually followed through all the code andwas hooked.The Perl techniques presented here are complete and I have notseen them anywhere in any of the other books dedicated to Perl (even theO'Reilly books). The source included in the CD actually worked.

Iam especially excited by the XML materials in chapter 5 and 6.Chapter 5is a concise intro to XML.The techniques for parsing XML with theXML::Parser module (based on James Clark's Expat) are presented with greatcomments, always leading to a complete application at the end of thechapter.No other Perl books I've bought (and I do have many of them withanimals on the cover) have ever explained to me how to use the XML::Parser,but this book does it exceptionally well in just one chapter! (chapter 6).

Chapter 7 shows you how to build a Perl XML-driven site.How totranslate from XML to HTML, from HTML form to XML and how to manage XMLcontent with Perl scripts.

The rest of the chapter discussedapplications servers with a focus on the open source XAS, an XML Java-basedapplication server.Again, the authors show you step by step thetechniques for building Java applets and clients, parsing XML in Java andbuilding an XML-driven site in Java. (Here I would like to see moreserver-side programming with Java servlets).

The final chaptersdiscussed some issues on foolproofing and deploying your applications inLinux.

The book is not a tutorial on Perl or Java (the authorsmade that clear in the introduction. The readers are expected to have abasic understanding and working knowledge of both).

I really likethe style with which the authors lay out the materials. The authors give alot of comments on the code.I like the fact that, throughout the book,the code and component/routine lead up to a complete useful non-trivialapplication at the end of each chapter.It motivates me and pulls mealong.It's a style that appeals to me and helps me to absorb thematerials.I find myself adapting the techniques into my web programmingprojects.

I highly recommend this book to any web programmer whowants to dabble in new development techniques with Perl, Java, XML, Linux,Apache and open source tools.A remarkably up-to-date book on currentissues of web development.(No fluff).It doesn't just talk about them,it actually shows you how to implement them.
5 stars.

Best Book Ever
A well written look into possibly the most relevant technology of the minute.Drew and Chris capture an essence hereto untold about the world of Linux Web Programming.I laughed, I cried, but I saw the ending comingfrom a mile away. ... Read more

Product Description
Linux Programming By Example introduces programmers with some background in C but no knowledge of the specifics of Linux programming to the fundamentals of Linux system programming and application development. Topics covered include using GNU development tools, system programming, file handling in Linux, interprocess communication, network programming, application programming interfaces, debugging and memory management, and version control and software distribution. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (11)

A more recent "edition" is available
"I bought the book and started to read: Page 3 says: "To see the code for this book, go to ...and type ..." Apparently, the link is broken."
I think this book is "discontinued."The author Kurt Wall wrote another book with Mark Watson: "Linux Programming Unleashed".I guess you may download some similar code at this new book's site: http://www.quepublishing.com/title/0672320215#

nice introduction for beginners
This book does not go into much detail, but provides a well rounded introduction to many Linux programming concepts.
Consider this book a nice transition from basic C to Linux programming, before hitting the advanced material.

Where are you and your code?
I bought the book and started to read: Page 3 says: "To see the code for this book, go to ...and type ..." Apparently, the link is broken.

And I turned to Page 0 and found author's e-mail... Well, the message was bounced back after seconds.

What can I say more?

It's a good book
Overall, this book is a good book.It is a good start for the beginner.The examples are good and provide simple explanations of how to use Linux features.

There are some topics that could have benefitted from a more in depth discussion.If you are looking for a basic overview of Linux programming features, this book is a good start.

Catapult Your Understanding
For many mastering K&R marks the end of their investigation of C, this is a mistake. K&R is only a milestone and Linux Programming By Example shows you this.

While armed with the book you will be able to put together almost any program you heart may desire. Making it truely a book that takes the skilled programmer and shows you why you bothered to study so hard. ... Read more

Product Description
Taking a broad view of distributed programming within a UNIX enivronment, this guide explains, compares, and contrasts the underlying support offered by UNIX for manipulating processes for inter-process communication. It covers a wide range of issues--from simple pipes to traditional client/server network applications to the exploitation of true concurrency and parallelism. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

10 years on and still refering to this book
I originally bought this book back in 1997 and used it to aid my development into writing client server (mostly server) applications running under UNIX.

This book has been heavily used, and many of the server applications I wrote under unix (up until working with windows 3 years ago) using examples from the book on Signals, Pipes and Sockets (while also using Avanced Unix Programming).

Today I dusted off the book as I wanted to write a quick TCP server program using Winsock. I took the example from the book in Sockets and with a couple of very minor tweaks and the stuff to setup winsock I wrote a very simple windows console server application.

OK, some of the commands, like close is closesocket, have changed for windows BUT the majority of code came from the book. This book is still aiding me even today.

This maybe an old book but well worth that cost (and these days its a fraction of the cost I bought it for).

It is indeed easy and well defined
Chris Brown has written a clear book on the Distributed Progrmming under the UNIX environment. When I started to look into this subject I faced so many barriers cause of lack of clarity and easiness of the other books andmaterials covering this subject. I have to admit also that I sometimesdecided to give the whole thing up. Fortunately, I came across this bookand it revived my hope. It is really a good book to start with and deservesof studying. Particular attention should be paid on Sockets. I wouldhowever suggest some matterials on the web which could be covered beforereading this book. Many examples have worked for me. The way he providesthe code examples (which are in C) is also comprehensive and anyone withexperience in C should not have problems with understanding them. I would,however, recommend other books (such as Stevens Unix Network Programmingand Advanced Programming under the UNIX environment as well as Comer's and Steven's Internetworkingwith TCP/IP III) to read as a flow-up manuals. One should also testavailable code (the coplete ones) to have some hands on experience on thesubject. Some of the thing did not seem consistent with the author to me.

Excellent introduction, but not the deepest book.
This book has very nice explanations. Sometimes they almost seem too simple, but you can count on it not being over your head.It has lots of illustrations and is fairly easy to read.I think the author takes acomplex topic and explains it very, very well.It's also a lot shorterthan some of the books by W. Richard Stevens.Both this book and Stevens's"UNIX Network Programming" are too old to include POSIXsemaphores. If you get your hands on a book on UNIX distributedprogramming, look in the index for "sem_init" or posix to see ifit has the latest technology.I think everyone who programs in a unixenvironment should read this book to get a broad introduction to thistopic.If you have the time to read 2 books on this topic, I recommendthis one 1st to understand the concepts and another book with more examplesto get more ideas for coding.

Perfect guide to UNIX distributed programming for beginners
This book has helped me a lot with my assignments in a graduatedistributed systems course. Even if you are not familiar with UNIXdistributed programming, after reading this book, you will start writingexcellent programs for UNIX distributed environment. (You need to befamiliar with programming in C) ... Read more

Product Description
Traditionally, books on shell programming present theshell as the user interface to UNIX.This complete guide shows how to use the shell todevelop shell scripts, using the shell more like a programming language than a commandinterpreter. Covers shell syntax, portability on different UNIXsystems, using shell scripts to catch or ignore signals, executing commands using theremote shell command, and using the shell's redirection syntaxes.For software development engineers, system administrators, and QA test engineers whowork with UNIX computer systems. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (24)

Shame on you Prentice Hall!
I would give this book five stars on content.It is very well written and a very good read.However,the printing and binding of this book is abysmal. At forty five dollars and such a small book it was indeed disappointing when the binding started falling apart after less then one month.Prentice Hall needs to look at this book and it's quality control.Until this issue is addressed buyer beware!

Great scripting resource
This book is a great resource for making sure your scripts are portable and can be run on any unix box. A clear concise set of bourne shell scripts and functions that allow them to be used with any shell from the Bourne shell up thru ksh and bash. This book can be used as a learning tool or a reference book for veteran shell scripters.

Very very useful, with a few stupid omissions
I work in different scripting languages so I can never remember which syntax I use for which language.This book is my "go to" book for a quick reference on "what that command looks like" in a shell script.

There are a few just plain stupid omissions though. On page 15 the author introduces the "if" statement with "command-list" as the argument to the "if".A new coder could spend literally several hours figuring out that "command-list" means:

[ "$string1" == "$string2" ]
[ $int1 -eq $int2 ]
[ -f "FileToTestExistenceOf.dat" ]

(Note, there's no entry for "command-list" in the index)

There are a small number of these blantant omissions that almost prevent me from recommending the book.But the rest of the book is so useful, I still recommend it.

[...]

Best Borne-shell reference and examples
I rely on this book for looking up materials for my daily programming needs of Borne-shell.It has never failed me yet.

This book is jam packed with good Borne-shell examples.Just the examples alone are worth the price of the book in my opinion.

This Is The Book.
If you want to understand shell scripting, do not pass go, do not collect $200, just buy this book.
It's a classic: readable, useful, concise, illuminating.It teaches
the gleaming core of shell scripting.You won't find all the new Bash syntax
here, and you won't miss it, either; this book teaches you how to write
concise scripts that run anywhere.I recommend it to all my interns and new coworkers. ... Read more

Product Description
Sams Teach Yourself Linux Programming in 21 Days,Complete Learning Edition, is the perfect starter kit to learn Linux programming. The book contains 21 lessons each consisting of activities for the reader as they learn the essentials of programming Linux. This product provides a solid foundation for application development or system programming on Linux. When you finish the book you should be comfortable with programming on Linux and be able to grasp new concepts (eg X-windows programming) and the incorporation of new software in his base system.

• A complete learning solution: A 21 Days book as well as the hottest and third-party products
• Learn to program the Linux operating system and solve real world Linux programming problems in just 21 Days
• Makes the transition to Linux programming as easy as possible with many example programs provided
• CD-ROM contains a developer's warehouse of products, from integrated development environments to repositories of various runtime libraries

Topics covered: Linuxsystem programming in C, GNU C compiler, environment variables,debugging, forking, strings, file I/O, IPC, client/server, Tiny QueryServer, and TQL. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (9)

How to be a Unix programmer
This book is perfect for anyone who's programmed on Windows or other non-Unix platforms. This is all stuff that's basic to Unix programmers but a mystery to everyone else. This book breaks through the barrier. If you want to get on the same footing as all those strange people that prefer command-line interfaces, this is a great place to start.

Perhaps, you need...
If you new to Linux, perhaps you need other books to check for small some details which are not mentioned by the author. For example, if you want to use "core dump" at beginning of the book, you need to edit the .bashrc file first because by defaut setup it will not "dump" at all. Also, when you reach to hour 5, you should be careful to use tab instead of spaces in the beginning of the lines containing with commands. I can find the answers for all of this in "Running Linux" by Matt Welsh. Good luck!

This book should have been called Unix GNU programming in C!
I have looked for a book like this for quite some time.Every Linux Programming book I have seen so far tries to give me the whole kitchen sink.They cover databases to scripting to GUI.Thats exactly not what I want.I tend not to look at the 24hrs book's as they usually don't cover enough ground.Not this one!Warren Gay has done a superb job of covering the essential programming steps required to do succesful GNU/Unix programming (I used Solaris not Linux).If you are already familier with the C language then this is the road map to doing it right, the unix way.Revision control, makefiles, debugging, forks, pipes and unix permissions to name a few of the subjects are covered in a clear and easly understood method.Granted there are other books that cover C more in depth, then again I already have them.Kudos to you Warren Gay,I can hardly wait for your next one.

Excellent explanation.
The author did very good job explaining the very basic ,but yet important linux/unix programming conecept in this book. I definitely recommand this book to anyone who wants to learn linux/unix programing (or novice). Excellent job !!!!!!

Thanks...

Excellent explanation.
The author did very good job explaining the very basic ,but yet important linux/unix programming conecept in this book. I definitely recommand this book to anyone who wants to learn linux/unix programing (or novice). Excellent job !Thanks... ... Read more

Product Description
Sams Teach Yourself C for Linux Programming in 21 Days presents C programming techniques in a logical and easy-to-follow sequence that helps you understand the principles involved in developing C programs. You'll begin the basics of writing a program, then move on to arrays, pointers, disk input/output, functions, and more. Learn the basics of C, including variables, constants, conditional statements, loops, pointers, data structures, input/output, and functions. This book presents C in the most logical and easy-to-learn sequence, and is geared towards programmers learning the C language for Linux. Also included will be additional material needed to develop and execute programs for Linux. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (15)

A well rounded, decent introduction to C
I came to this book after struggling to learn C++.I found this book to be well written and understandable given that it is a programming book. The book breaks down the programs in a step by step manner which made it each smaller piece easier to understand.Although, the author avoids explaining some things early on, it is so that the reader isn't overwhelmed.

I was able to learn C from this book when I was a 10th grader in high school with only a background in BASIC. Although, there may be better books out there, this book is good to fair.

I am now a software engineer who owes some of his early education to this book.

Bad Choice
The Book: C for Linux Programming in 21 Days by Sam's is published in 2000. It is either so out of date, or inaccurate that even the first example (Hello World!), coding doesn't work. Even after following the instructions multiple times and double checking everything over. Warning their is a number of different downloads that have to be done to apply the information in these kinds of books that never get mentioned it is questionable if books like these serve any purpose other than coffee table decorations. Space too small to give lessons here. Buy only up to the minute beginning books. May things go well with you.

With out a doubt, the BEST intro to C book on the market!
Going into my first year as a computer science student, I had never programmed before in any language. After realizing how tough it was, I picked up this book that was luckily in a local book store and read the entire book cover to cover. I'm now in my final year preparing to do a Masters in computer science thanks largely in part to this book. Even though it's not a complete C reference, it definatly gets you going in the write direction. From making simple to advanced makefiles in a clear and understandable manner, to structured software development with debugging information and proper coding techniques. It is missing important information like database programming and socket programming, but the things that are missing could be picked up in a more indepth and advanced book on C programming like "Beginning Linux Programming" (big red book with the 2 guys on the cover laughing at eachother). I'd never part with my copy of Teach Yourself C in 21 Days because its a good reference for little things you may forget along the way.

Great book! Nice introduction to C in the Linux environment.
This book helped me get back with programming in C (one of the most powerful languages out there), and they did a nice job of explaining the Linux environment and how the GNU C compiler (GCC) works. I am pretty new to Linux but had no trouble getting up and running with the book.

Full of goodies, plenty of reference-
This book is beyond as good as i said in my last review, well this is an update. After finishing this book, i have an entirely new outlook on why this book is so good! I always find myself looking back for a reminder; if there's something i need a refresh or rescale on, it's got it. it teaches compiling all the way to deployment. This book is desirably the best in my GNU/Linux stash. There are so many extras in this book, you would b surprised why they priced it so low!

COVERED- Pointers (in depth), functions, all forms of data structures, GTK/GTK+, and more-

If you the reader are taking any introductory courses in programming, for goodness and gpa get this book! Especially if you have a[bad]teacher as i once did ;)

Hope this was helpful ... Read more

Product Description
Provides in-depth coverage of QT programming for Linux and Windows 2000, interfacing with Microsoft APIs, working with DDE servers, COM, DCOM, and Qt2. The CD-ROM comes with the new Qt 2.1 with toolkit extensions, sample code, and more. Softcover. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (17)

Waste of money!
I have the the "Qt Programming for Linux and Windows 2000" by the same author, that was a poorly written book, only 20 percent of the content maybe usefull, I am surprised even such book got published, it raise my doubt about HP Professional Books. The list of Qt classes takes at least 20 percent of that book's content. I would sell mine brand new one for...(just to recover part of my cost).

Useful only to start
If you have never seen Qt, this is a useful book. It has a good explanation of the concepts and basic programming.
But if you are spending your time reading the online documentation and coding, the book soon becomes useless and goes to the desk eternally.
I bought it because O'Really book looked outdated. I think there is a new edition comming soon.

Qt Programming for LINUX and Windows 2000
Whoever it was that tried to tell me this book was a huge disappointment was absolutely correct. I've already been programming with Qt quite extensively, and this was no more than a repeat reference of the online docs by Trolltech, but worse. At least I can use "Find" on my browser to do searches. I feel ...no more knowledgeable than I am already. Please save yourselves the (PRICE) and find a useful book on the subject.

Good stuff
I'm new to Qt but I have played with it before I bought this book.

At first I thought the book was trying to be a Qt reference manual until I got to the part where Ward explains what it's for: A different organization of way too much Qt information.

It does that OK. What I really like is that the examples applied to what I'm trying to get done.

When does the new book come out? Cover QFtp!

Not perfect but the best available
Lots of examples that work.
Too much info that's provided w/the software.
CD is very nice to have!
A lot of substance and little "fluff."
It helped me become a better QT programmer - and that's the bottom line, isn't it? ... Read more

Product Description
The changes to UNIX programming that have taken place since 1985 are extensive to say the least. The first edition of Advanced UNIX Programming is still used and considered to be a must have book on any UNIX programmer's shelf. With this new edition UNIX programmers now have a one-volume, comprehensive, in-depth guide to the essential system-level services provided to them by the UNIX family of operating systems - now including Linux, FreeBSD, and the Mac OS X kernel (Darwin). All UNIX application programs, regardless of what language they are written in, run on top of these services, so mastering them is essential for successful UNIX programming. And, with a movement towards open-source systems, programmers will appreciate the book's emphasis on portability. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (19)

Read more on Unix
The copy I read had a different cover.
This book is interesting, showing you the relation between C and Unix.

THE book to get for UNIX programming
I am a systems administrator professionally, but I have a need to know the inner workings of UNIX that only seems to be covered in programming books. Specifically relating to certain system calls and interprocess communication methods.

This author has forgotten more about UNIX than I will ever grasp. While this book is dedicated to programming applications in UNIX and understanding the operating system's function calls, I am finding it to be a very handy reference for advanced system administration as well. The book is worth the price just for the chapters on process communication, in my opinion.

I really like the author's writing style. He gets down to business and covers the material without adding a lot of needless fluff or by making the chapters overly wordy.

The book is designed to server as a reference and is well-indexed, which is refreshing to find these days. It's very easy to find a topic you need as not everyone will need the amount of depth covered by each chapter in full.

I wish there were more UNIX books out there like this one.

Informative
The book is good for beginners.All you need to know to get started with Unix/Linux programming.

A very useful reference
I bought this book in order to get an overview on what primitives I have available on a unix system for doing system programming. I found the book to be very useful for that purpose.

I use it occasionally.

I also found my peers lending it from me again and again.

To summarize: useful.

The best UNIX programming book that I know of
What's more to say, the title say's it all...Buy it! ... Read more

Product Description
A complete guide to Linux sockets, showing how to work with the different types of sockets: streams, datagrams, and raw. Also shows how to work with multicast and broadcast messages, how to create secure sockets using OpenSSL, how to prepare for IPv6 and how to convert programs accordingly. Also offers information about network security, and a number of other topics. Softcover. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (8)

A Bad Introduction on Sockets Programming on Unix/Linux
The main idea of the book is to present a broad overview of the software that uses the Sockets API from a conceptual and practical approach. For several reasons these objectives are not achieved.

The first problem I found is the bad writing style the author uses in order to explain the concepts. From useless methaphors to inconsistent computing jargon, passing by really bad redaction skills; the main text is plagged with non-relevant digressions that could be (if needed at all) put apart in its own chapter. I think 70% of these problems could be eliminated by a good editor review.

About the contents, the book tries to introduce a lot of concepts in an excessive superficial and/or inaccurate way, frequently inserting unimportant details and skipping the basics and really important aspects. For example, in the topic of threads versus processes, the book explains that the Posix Threads is a library and the fork et al. are system calls, etc. and provides a very succinct table of differences and extracts of code showing the API... its not clear from the text nor the samples the fact that the globals are shared between threads, nor the reasons to prefer them over processes or the other way. Next follows a (larger) explanation of the (nonportable and mostly useless) "clone" system call.

Some random additional complains:

- About 20% of the book are appendixes of questionable utility
- In the Kernel API reference, there are Linux-specific system calls (like sched_yield()) mixed with standard ones (like waitpid()) without advice about portability. Ok, this is a "Linux" book, but the author frecuently states the code is mostly usable on Unix.
- Lots of irrelevant pages... templates/persistence/etc on C++, dilemmas on project management(!), etc
- The "SSL/Security" chapter is "filled" with generalities about general security problems (hacking, firewalls, DMZ) but the SSL API is "explained" in sparse comments of a basic two-page code sample! Sadly, this pattern follows for all the "advaced" topics

My advice: like other readers said, do yourself a favor and look for Unix Network Programming Vol 1 of Stevens; or for non serious work just rely on internet tutorials.

Very Good source and Explanation
I think this book is well written, it gives you the basic idea of the network protocal, mainly how each piece is created in a packet.It even goes a little into the Network OSI model, if you dont know about networking, then I can see how this book would seem hard for some ppl.I do admit that i wasnt too happy when i didnt get the cd that the book references too, but if you really need it, you can find it with a little bit of effort, or go to [the website].Hope this helps those who need it :^).

Poor job...
I bought the book hoping to get some cookbook algorithms for setting up some sockets, but I must say I'm really disappointed with the book.I wish I had read the reviews here first.I would never have purchased the book.I'm an engineer, have been programming for over twenty years and have a large technical book collection.This book is poorly put together, jumps around topics, has confusing explanations, and the incomplete code segments don't help much...I'll think twice about buying another Sam's book.I've read gallies that were better than this.I rate this as a don't buy!

Are Other Reviewers Using the Same Book?
I am really not sure if the other reviewers are leaving comments for the same book. I purchased this book to gain an understanding of socket programming in Linux. I made it half way through chapter 2 before returning the book.
Problems started with chapter 1. The writing style is extremely choppy. The book references sample code on the included CD-ROM and in the back of the book. Guess what? No CD and no code appendix. We are not talking just one reference to this. There are several in chapter one and the part of chapter two I read kept refering to the CD for RFCs.
So, you might say, perhaps there is a web site with code. Eureka! there is. So I happily try to compile the sample simple-client code for chapter 1. One error, one warning, and code that doesn't match what is said in the book. Specifically: the error was caused by forgetting to #include , warning on line 62 because there needs to be an explicit cast to (struct sockaddr*) and finally in big bold letters in a gray box the author states that the book's sample code will use PF_ prefixes vs AF_. Not true in the code I looked at.
I did email the author and received a quick response. He let me know that he was having to foot the bill for the web site. Shame on the publisher for the lack of support. But shame on Mr. Walton for publishing such unpolished code.
Maybe the rest of the book is ok. Explantions were extremely shallow in chapter one when talking about function calls and structures with references to RFCs and other resources. I paid for the book to be a resource, not to be referred other places. What explanations there were jumped all over the place without any real meat, sometimes using useless analogies. I didn't feel like fighting my way through the rest of it. I broke down and ponied up for Stevens TCP/IP Illustrated Volume 1 and Unix Network Programming Volume 1.

Has useful tidbits (but that's about it)
First of all, this book is no UNPv1. If you want to learn network programming for UNIX/Linux, there is nothing that could replace UNPv1 (Stevens "Unix Network Programming" 2nd ed., vol. 1). [CORRECTION: actually Comer's book(s) are comparable to those of Stevens]

Now back to the book reviewed. I bought it because it seemed to elaborate a bit more on a subject covered only briefly by Stevens: concurrent network I/O in real-world conditions. Well, it did have a special section on the subject but it didn't provide any particular information I was looking for:

- analysis of different I/O methods' behavior under different load conditions

- throughput analysis

- applicability of different methods in different UNIX flavours (Oops, this is a book for Linux! Still, it would be nice if the author at least mentioned the portability issues)

- while the examples were nice and clear, it would make sense to create an I/O abstraction layer that would act as a (de)multiplexor and to change only this layer for every I/O paradigm.

So, once we get past the section on real-world network I/O issues, what we are left with is a decent yet not perfect book on network programming. It will teach you how to develop network applications for Linux but it won't provide the same depth UNPv1 does.

Conclusion: Read it if you want to quickly start developing network apps and you don't have time for UNPv1. Otherwise go for UNPv1. Still, it is worthwhile to skim through the sections on throughput and performance. ... Read more

Product Description
The most complete guide available on the practical applications of UNIX Threads—one of the most exciting breakthroughs in advanced computing. The first part covers multiprocessing and multithreading then progresses to more difficult programming problems. Details the application programming interface with numerous C language examples. Includes reference material essential to support the programming principles. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

Good book but no online source
very good book on Thread programming for beginners as well as advance developers. But without the online software its doing a dis-service to the book !

The book gives the web site which has the software but that's incorrect.

Concepts are very well covered
Well written book with lot of details. If a CD was included or if a web site was given to find the source code it would have been better.

Where's the source code?
Despite the fact that this book covered the subject at a level I found to be appropriate, the lack of source code availability severely restricts the usefulness of this book. In this day and age, not providing the source codeis inexcusable. There are other equally good sources of information on thissubject, source code included.

OK, but too low-level. Source for examples NOT available!
Source code for the examples is NOT available via the Internet, as the book states. Publisher/Author acknowledges this. This book is geared more toward systems/low-level programming use of UNIX threads rather than application level use of threads. This book is written on an advanced level. It does provide thorough explanations of the principles of threads programming. ... Read more

Product Description
With more and more systems being run under UNIX and Linux, the ability to program and customize the shell quickly and reliably to get the best out of any individual system is becoming a more and more important skill for anyone operating and maintaining these systems.

This comprehensive book is a practical, easy-to-use guide to programming and using the Bourne shell for beginners and experienced users - the Bourne shell is the standard shell for UNIX, and is also fully backward compatible to the Linux BASH shell. This book will fully illustrate the ability of the shell to unlock the real potential of UNIX and Linux, and aims to get the reader up, running and creating robust shell scripts for real tasks and situations as quickly as possible - shell scripts that will work on any mainstream UNIX or Linux machine.

If you are new to UNIX and Linux or if you are a power user in waiting then this book is for you. Most shell programming books merely annotate manual pages and syntax , but in this book users of all abilities will find plenty of practical working examples - all of which are available as full code script via an ftp site - as well as a host of tips, tricks and code one-liners, that will save you time on a day-to-day basis. The book is organized into self-contained chapters on individual topics for ease of reference.

Linux and Unix Shell Programming is structured in 5 parts:

* Part 1 deals with the Shell itself, introducing the various commands and syntax * Part 2 introduces all the major text filtering tools available to the shell * Part 3 explains the login environment and customization * Part 4 covers basic shell programming * Part 5 introduces more advanced shell programming techniques

Features: * Practical advice and guidance for beginner and advanced programmers alike * Easy access to specific topics through self-contained chapters for day-to-day reference. * Every chapter backed up with real, practical examples * Full of tested time-saving code one-liners * All programming examples and code available in electronic form ... Read more

Customer Reviews (18)

There's got to be a content checker...
Apparently Tansley failed to re-read his book before getting it published and failed to come up with a revised edition.Some of the examples are inconsistent with what he described before hand.Letters missing, wrong punctuation, wrong characters.You have to double check online some of the stuff he has in the book just to be sure he got it right.

Don't buy it if you don't have to.There's probably better books out there on this subject.

Why this book is excellent still after so many typos?
I actually had been looking for a book to prep me up for a solid unix and shell interview. I went through at least 30 books on safari and at barnes and nobles. none of them very satisfying. This book inspite of having typos ( which are essentially either grammatical and few syntactical) can be easily caught by someone who has an intermediate knowledge of Unix and shell. But still it can be good enough to confuse an expert if hes not attentive. I highly recommend reading another uNix/Linux book first to get the fundamentals brushed up before you start reading this one. You have to read this book to understand some tricks/tips that are not explained in most of the books. I give the author a 10/10 for content and really not mind the typos as long as stuff is solid. If you have ever had class notes and you were able to understand them at some future time then you should be able to makse sense of this book too :)

Typos not the only errors
Like many other reviewers, I have found numerous typos, oddly worded sentences, saying one thing in prose and then writing the opposite in code, and other unprofessional, but understandable errors in the text.

What I can't forgive are the conceptual errors which really begin appearing in the sections on shell programming. For instance, to demonstrate an until loop, he presents the following script (paraphrased here:)

IS_ROOT=`who | grep root`
until [ $IS_ROOT ]
do
sleep 5
done
echo "ROOT IS LOGGED ON"

which is supposed to, once run, check every 5 seconds if user 'root' is logged on.But there is a real error here - the command in backquotes is only evaluated once, when the line is evaluated. From that point on, $IS_ROOT will always have the same value (empty, if root is not logged on when the script is run), and the until loop will either run forever, or never run at all.

That same conceptual error is repeated more than once, and other similar errors appear in the section on flow control (which is where I decided to stop reading).

My background is fairly advanced - I've been using bash for over a decade, but have always turned to python or perl for any of my scripting needs. However, I know that is often much faster to write one-off shell scripts than python scripts, so I decided to read up on it. With my experience, I was able to detect and mentally correct a lot of the errors (which may confuse or mislead novices) and still get something out of the first part book. But I'm not willing to read a programming book - even if it's just shell programming - where the author is making such fundamental conceptual errors. Also, it seems like he has not tested his code, which is a necessity for any book on programming.

I do think this book could be very useful if it were corrected, tested, and the programs rethought - it has a nice mix of topics and fairly readable prose (in most places). But as it stands, it can not be recommended, especially to novices who may not be able to recognize the errors.

Full of errors
First, it's clear that often a reviewer will give a good book a bad rating because they don't understand the material of the book and are frustrated. I want to assure you that I am NOT one of those people. I am frustrated for far different reasons.

I bought this book because it seemed to cover many topics which are just obscure enough that other shell programming books for beginners leave them out. I'm not a beginniner, but I'm not an expert, and simply want to read about some commands I'm not already familiar with to broaden my horizons.

However, I do have enough experience to soon realize that the book had far too many errors to be useful. These aren't just typos either. For example, on page 66 the author states, "To run a list of commands in the current shell, seperate each command with a command seperator, and enclose the list with round brackets." and then goes on to give an example:

$ comet month_end || (echo "Hello, guess what! Comet did not work"|mail dave; exit)

Well, if one didn't know better, one might actually believe this was correct. Of course, he also states that, "To run...in the subshell...use {} instead of ()." and then I quote:

The general format is:
{command1; command2;..)

(Yes, that is his unmatched parenthesis, not mine.) The typo is rather harmless, but giving the exact opposite meaning to something, than it actually has is not. I quickly lost my confidence in the accuracy of the book, which makes it virtually useless as a reference manual. It may still be useful to get the general idea of a command, but I wouldn't dare copy the examples in the book without reading the man pages first to make sure they are correct.

There seems to be a typo on every page, often two or three, the index is also awful, and some of the examples are dirt-dumb. Here is an example from the section on the null statement (:):

if [ "`ls -A $DIRECTORY`" = "" ]
then
echo "$DIRECTORY is indeed empty"
else :# do nothing
fi

I'm sure this is a very useful, non-trivial example of the null statement...the profoundness just hasn't sunken in yet.

In sum, I believe that the editor position at Addison-Wesley is just a figurehead job, and that those 1000 monkeys trying to type Hamlet produced this as one of their early drafts.

definitely NOT a good book!
I don't think this is a good book. I have compared this book with other shell programming books and and found this book is not good at all. So when I need to refer a shell script book I would not use this one.Besieds, the author is really careless, this book contains a lot of errors.
when I wrote this review, I found there are altogether 14 reviews already. Seems some of the reviewers had the same feeling toward this book as me. ... Read more

Product Description
The Tcl language and Tk toolkit offer many benefits: They're easy tolearn, capable of producing good interfaces quickly, great forprototyping applications, and are infinitely customizable.But oneof the greatest strengths of Tcl/Tk is the range of extensions writtenfor it. In this book, the creators of the most popular and robust extensionsclearly document how these powerful collections of commands transformTcl/Tk to make it even more usable. Supported with a foreword by Tcl/Tkcreator John Ousterhout, this book covers Tcl-DP, TclX, BLT, [incr Tcl]and [incr Tk], TSIPP, Sybtcl and Oratcl, and many other extensions,as well as configuration, debugging, and other important tasks.The CD-ROM includes Tcl/Tk, the extensions, and other tools documentedin the text both in source form and as binaries for Solaris and Linux. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

"Tools" is helpful
This was the first book I read on Tcl/TK (a mistake), but it was nonetheless helpful.I do refer it often.I particularly found the introduction to Expect useful.

don't bother if you don't already know what you're doing...
The book's description on the back cover doesn't even match the content nor does the CD-ROM. It looks and reads like a thrown together blob of stuff ... can someone tell me where to find the durn spreadsheet widget ..its mentioned on the back cover but not in the index, the table of contentsnor on the CD-ROM....

Tcl users want this on their shelves.
I don't recommend purchase lightly.I've been wearing out its pages for two weeks now, with occasional bouts of furrowed brows and impatient snorting.I've come, though, to a conclusion in which I'm confident:if you're a Tcl user, you should invest in *Tcl/Tk Tools*.

Why?Because you'll use it, and use it well.Almost everyone involved in Tcl has questions (so how do I really compile a Tcl script?How much does it take to do drag-and-drop and tool tips?Are the RDBMS extensions current with vendor features? ...) answered here. Simplify your life by putting these 650+ pages on your shelf.

What is *Tcl/Tk Tools*?It's a collection of descriptions of different popular extensions to Tcl and Tk. While lead author Harrison gives the impression they're written by "the extension authors themselves", there are a few exceptions to this pattern.The book is not written as a tutorial or introduction to Tcl, sagely pointing to John Ousterhout and Brent Welch's books for that role (although I've been thinking of experimenting with putting *Tcl/Tk Tools* in the hands of novices, to see what would happen.I suspect they'd survive in good shape).

*Tcl/Tk Tools* isn't exhaustive.It doesn't include several of my favorite extensions, including Scotty, NeoWebScript, stooop, tclMsql, the PlusPatches, ...It doesn't matter.If you care about only *one* of the extensions described here, you'll do well to have your own copy.

Harrison and his co-authors do a good job of hitting the target of telling "Here's the philosophy behind this package, and here are some examples of how to use it effectively" that he lays out in the Preface.While it's easy to move from one chapter to another, it's not at the expense of the authors and their personalities.D. Richard Hipp's thoughtful precision and De Clarke's care in engineering effective solutions come through, as do the assurance and lucidity those in the Tcl community expect of Don Libes.Less successful is the forward look that Harrison intended, toward "the plans the extension authors had for future enhancements and extensions."I assume this was in part a casualty of the realities of the publishing cycle; certainly many of the chapters appear to have been finished before the appearance a year ago of 7.6's betas.

Two unglamorous aspects of the book multiply its value:the index is sound (that's saying a lot for me; I have high standards in indexing), and Harrison's Chapter 17 on what he calls "Configuration Management" lays out much valuable wisdom that newcomers need to learn.Reading the latter is painful:it has all the important, tedious subjects ("Combining Extensions ...", command-line munging, ...) one wants--but without mention of Win* or loadable libraries!These frailties are inevitable when broadcasting on dead trees, of course.What's disappointing is that *Tcl/Tk Tools* doesn't go farther in joining the Internet Age:although a two-page Appendix lauds news:comp.lang.tcl and lists the FAQs and nine URLs (some of which have already moved, of course), and individual authors take it on themselves to provide appropriate references,
* it's not apparent that there is any page where Harrison and/or O'Reilly maintain errata, updates, new examples, funny animal GIFs, or any of the other resources readers might be expected to exploit--I couldn't find one at the URL the Preface gave, nor elsewhere at www.ora.com;
* some authors supply no e-mail addresses;
* some authors give references ("look in the archives") that will be inscrutable for those not already in the know; and
* there is wide variation in the quality of information authors give about extension prospects, bug lists (a particular sore point with me), mailing lists, and so on.
Understand, please, that I'm not labeling these moral faults; as on every project, the good engineering comes in deciding where to make the cuts, and what definite values to deliver.I personally look forward to seeing books that build a more dynamic relationship with online sources, and am simply noting that *Tcl/Tk Tools* doesn't achieve that standard.

The quality of production is high, higher even than the elevated expectations I have of O'Reilly.Typos, mistakes in word choice, and code errors seem to sum to around zero to five per chapter.Screen shots are judicious and illuminating, rather than gratuitously space-filling.The CD-ROM (with binaries for indeterminate but predictable releases of Solaris and Linux) does the little I asked of it.

Summary:whether you're a full-time Tcl-er or a greenhorn, you'll profit from having *Tcl/Tk Tools* at hand.Whenever you're in a pinch, there's a fair chance the Index and/or Table of Contents will quickly lead you to a useful datum.During more contemplative moments, you'll want to read the chapters in a connected fashion, and the accuracy and insight of the authors will make you glad that you do. ... Read more

Product Description
Explains the inner mechanisms of Linux from process scheduling to memory management and file systems. Softcover. CD-ROM included. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (28)

Great intro to Linux internals
I found the explanations in this book to be very clear, giving enough detail for a good head start into Linux internals. The book briefly explains the OS concepts, such as semaphores, virtual memory, etc., followed by an overview of how each is implemented in Linux, and code snippets.

Most of the code snippets are simplified for readability, which I found useful because the hacks can be distracting (scary, too) for a beginner. Detailed and up-to-date information can best be obtained from source code itself.

The book assumes some familiarity with Unix concepts, as it mentions such buzzwords as POSIX, BSD, and SVR4 in the context of the discussions, but one could safely ignore them, and just concentrate on the Linux part.

The book briefly covers adding new system calls, compilinag and debugging the kernel, and even shows how to write a simple device driver - these are hard to find in one place.

Overall, I found this book to be very useful for my self-paced study (the best so far), and I only wish they had a newer edition.

A liitle out-date, but still a good book for OS concepts
This book is a little outdated today as it covers the older 2.0 kernels. If you are reading this book and following it up on a 2.4 kernel you will find many changes.The book does contain the source code of the reference kernel it is written on.

I suppose its time a new updated edition is published.

However the commentry on a older kernel does not reduce the value of this book. It is a good book to understand the OS concepts as applied to Linux kernel.This book can be a good companion to Silberschatz/Galvin's "Operating Systems Concept" in a college course.

Another value of this book is purely historical, in case someone desires to compare older and newer kernels with a high-level view.

Not recommended for educational purpose
This book is lacked of organization.Some of the concepts are so vague because of the POOR English tone.

Vauge
The stuff in this book is explained in a complex manner. Though it is well organised it lacks clear representation. It looks like linux man-pages are explained in an organised manner. Could be used as a reference book, but not for learning.

It's like a jini
I used this book in my operating systems course, and since then I've always relied on it. I've read alot of books, but this book keeps on amazing me, it's very small still, I find every thing in it. However, it's not a uptodate(kernel 2.0), and you can't just dig and look for something, except if you have read most of it, you can't use it as a reference ... Read more

Product Description
Authoritative reference for programmers and system architects interested in building networked and distributed applications for UNIX System V. DLC: Operating systems (Computers) ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Great book!! Start here, then read Stevens.
This book and "Practical UNIX Programming" by Kay A. Robbins are a better place to start for UNIX programming than the Stevens' books. Once you complete this book, you can move on to Stevens.

This book deserves your attention if you are learning UNIX
I have the 9th edition of this book.The author definitely knows how to teach UNIX programming.If you are busy at work for Java, ActiveX, C++ like me, you will appreciate its concise while accurate content to get youstarted. ... Read more