Book Description
The intersection of ethics, law, business and computer software is the subject of these essays and speeches by MacArthur Foundation Grant winner, Richard M. Stallman. This collection includes historical writings such as The GNU Manifesto, which defined and launched the activist Free Software Movement, along with new writings on hot topics in copyright, patent law, and the controversial issue of "trusted computing." Stallman takes a critical look at common abuses of copyright law and patents when applied to computer software programs, and how these abuses damage our entire society and remove our existing freedoms. He also discusses the social aspects of software and how free software can create community and social justice.

Given the current turmoil in copyright and patent laws, including the DMCA and proposed CBDTPA, these essays are more relevant than ever. Stallman tackles head-on the essential issues driving the current changes in copyright law. He argues that for creativity to flourish, software must be free of inappropriate and overly-broad legal constraints. Over the past twenty years his arguments and actions have changed the course of software history; this new book is sure to impact the future of software and legal policies in the years to come.

Lawrence Lessig, the author of two well-known books on similar topics, writes the introduction. He is a noted legal expert on copyright law and a Stanford Law School professor. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Essential Reading for any Intelligent Adult Favoring Social Progress
I bought this book at Hackers on Planet Earth 6, and then after reading it in the morning, had the double benefit of hearing the author as keynote speaker in the afternoon.He is everything the book's contents suggest, and more.The author is one of the original MIT hackers (pick up a used copy of Shirley Turkle's "My Second Self, Computers and the Human Spirit" and/or Steven Levy's "Hacker's" which the author himself recommends.

The author's brilliant bottom line is quite clear throughout the book: software copyright prevents people from improving or sharing the foundation for progress in the digital era.

The author's social-technical innovation, which appears now to be acquiring tsunami force around the world, and is manifested in the Free/Open Source Software (F/OSS) movement that is being nurtured by governments worldwide from Brazil to China to Israel to the United Kingdom to Norway, is to modify copyright to a term he credits to another, copyleft, meaning that copyright in the new definition grants ALL permissions EXCEPT the permission to RESTRICT the enhancement and sharing of the software.

The author is also very careful to define the term free as meaning freedom of movement and growth, not free of price.GNU, his invention, removes computational obstacles to competition, and levels the playing field for more important innovations.In his view, the core issue is not about price, but about eliminating restrictions to freedom of sharing and enhancement.

On page 37 he sums up his life's purpose: "Proprietary and secret software is the moral equivalent of runners having a fist fight (during the race)" -- they all lose.

The author carefully distinguishes between the free and open source software, citing the first as a movement with values, the second as a process.

His candidacy for a Nobel Prize is captured in the sentence on page 61, "Free software contributes to human knowledge, non-free software does not."

Across the book, a collection of essays put into a very well ordered (not necessarily chronological) form, this book is a history of GNU (not UNIX) by its creator and co-founder of the Free Software Foundation.It is replete with concise useful discussions of terms, conditions, and cultures relevant to the future of mankind as a thinking forward looking species.

Section two, on copyright, copyleft, and patents is very helpful, and likely to become a standard in the field as the public fires elected representatives who sell out to Mickey Mouse copyright extenders, and demands a return to the original Constitutional limitation of copyright as an artifact of government, not a natural right, focused on nurturing knowledge.It means mention that Lawrence Lessig (see my reviews of his books) writes the introduction--the two authors together, along with Cass Sunstein, may be the most important trio of thinkers with respect to the future of man in the context of science, copyright, risk, and software as a human global contributor to sanity.

The author's keynote address at HOPE 6 is discussed toward the end of the book, where he lists the Four Freedoms:

Freedom 0: Run a program as you wish, for any purpose you wish, not limited to any narrowly defined application.

Freedom 1: Help yourself by improving the program (which requires access to source code).

Freedom 2: Help your neighbor by sharing a copy of the program with them.

Freedom 3: Help community by sharing the improved copy at large.

There is no question in my mind but that this manifesto of a single man's life's work is as important as Tom Paine's Common Sense treatises.There is a war now emergent between the classes (US elites bribing foreign elites, both screwing their publics over for private gain), and between corporations and the people, corporations long having abused the independent legal personality that was granted to promote business, and ended up being a legal barrier to holding corporate managers accountable for grand theft and social irresponsibility.

Toward the end the author offers thoughtful suggestions on how to "drop out" of the proprietary software world, and his thinking resonates with "No Logo" and its recommendations on selective purchasing.

This book is not a technical book although it offers up many understandable insights to technical matters underlying the social philosophy of the author.It is not a legal book either, but offers important informed commentary vital to getting the law focused again on human progress.Finally, in no way does the book dismiss the importance of capitalism--the author clearly states that it is entirely appropriate to charge a fee for one's contributions--this is about the "how" not the "how much.

Absolutely superb collection of essays, extremely important to where we go in the future.The author is not only an original hacker, he represents hacking as it should be understood by the authorities (see my review of Bruce Sterling, Hackers at the Edge of the Electronic Frontier), and as I see them--as people who have the "right stuff" and are testing the edge, pushing the frontier.In a world of drones, these are the libertarian spirits that may well keep us out of perpetual prison.

For reference: DARPA's STRONG ANGEL program, empowered now by DoD Directive 3000.cc. specifically seeks to create a suite of collaborative sharing and analytic tools that can be provided free to any non-governmental organization and any state and local government.Support costs have to be shared.It is now understood at the highest levels of the US military that we cannot make peace without sharing all information in all languages all the time (my third book), and this is progress.

Nice Explanations
The editor wrote a short forward explaining all the computer concepts the reader will need in order to understand the book.In addition, there are footnotes throughout the book explaining obscure people and computer terms.This way even a sociology major like myself can understand everything.

Stallman talks about important issues that are currently being played out in Washington DC.This book is a great way to help make sense of it all. ... Read more

Book Description
The definitive reference manual for the most widely used compiler in the world, written by the program's original author and its current developers. The GNU Compiler Collection is a full-featured ANSI C compiler with support for C, C++, Objective C, Java and Fortran as well as libraries for all these languages, such as libstdc++ and libgcj.

This book covers:

* The complete list of GCC command options.

* All the Objective-C runtime features.

* GCC support for C and C++ language standards.

* Extending C and C++ beyond the current standards.

* Special features of GCC's C, C++, and ObjC support.

* Fine tuning programs for your platform of choice.

This reference is intended for intermediate or above programmers. It assumes that the reader is already familiar with the basics of either C, C++ or Objective C languages. This edition of the book covers new features included with GCC version 3.3, while remaining compatible with earlier versions. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Gcc now handles key set of languages
Given the the author of this book wrote the original gcc, and has been closely involved with its development in the intervening years, you can safely regard the book as definitive.

Stallman clearly is writing for someone already familiar with C. Very little of your time is wasted by wading through elementary material.

When I first used gcc years ago, it was just that: strictly for compiling C programs. But Stallman and other developers have dramatically expanded the scope. Now, the book describes how gcc can handle a key set of languages - the original (ANSI) C, C++, Fortran and Java. The set of C, C++ and Fortran probably spans most engineering and scientific legacy applications. Terrific value! ... Read more

Book Description
GNU Emacs is much more than a simple word processor. Over the years it has expanded into an entire work flow environment. Programmers will be impressed by its integrated debugging and project management features. Emacs is also a multi-lingual word processor, can handle all your email and Usenet news needs, display web pages, and even has a diary and a calendar for your appointments! And when you tire of all the work you can accomplish with it, there are games to play.

Features include:
* Special editing modes for 25 programming languages including Java, Perl, C, C++, Objective C, Fortran, Lisp, Scheme, and Pascal.
* Special scripting language modes for Bash, other common shells, and creating Makefiles for GNU/Linux, UNIX, Windows/DOS and VMS systems.
* Support for typing and displaying in 21 non-English languages, including Chinese, Czech, Hindi, Hebrew, Russian, Vietnamese and all Western European languages.
* Creates Postscript output from plain text files and has special editing modes for LaTeX and TeX
* Compile and debug from inside Emacs
* Maintain program ChangeLogs
* Extensive file merge and diff functions
* Directory navigation: flag, move and delete files and sub-directories recursively.
* Run shell commands from inside Emacs, or even use Emacs as a shell itself (Eshell)
* Set up tag tables
* Version control management for release and beta versions, with CVS and RCS integration and much more!

This book picks up where the introductory on-line tutorial included with Emacs ends. It explains the full range of Emacs' power and contains reference material useful to expert users. Appendixes with specific material for MacIntosh and Microsoft OS users are included. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

Most excellent reference
Got the book two years ago while working as an adm. tech for a small company. I was familiar with vi but decided this one was more customizable. Got the latest copy just to update for the job.

This is THE GNU Emacs Manual
This book was issued to me while working as a consultant for Northern Telecom (Nortel.) They standardized on this editor, as it was the most efficient for their environment. The above description of the back cover pretty much tells it all. Mine is an earlier edition but the picture is still the same. The book comes with a Lay Flat Binding. There is a Short Content and several page Table of Contents. Also the GNU Manifesto, Glossary, Key (Character) Index, Command and Function Index, Variable Index and Concept Index. You seldom need to go outside this reference Manual.

excellent reference
This book is the only reference you need for Emacs v21. It is written by Richard Stallman, the original author of Emacs and about a gazillion other brilliant pieces of software, not to mention he is the founder of the GNU project and the FSF. The book is basically packed with useful information. It has a good table of contents and several good indexes (Key (Character) index, Command and function index, variable index and concept index). Some of the things you find are not compatable with earlier versions of emacs, and they are not always noted, but hopefully you can download the latest version anyways.

It covers the basics like opening/editting/saving files, getting online help, cutting/copying/pasting, searching/replacing, and simeltaneously working on multiple documents. Most of these simple things are also helpfully summarized on a tear-out reference card in the back. The book, however, goes into great, great detail, providing you with the massive power that Emacs (the one editor to rule them all) has.

Some other parts of the book that I found useful were the chapters covering backup files, version control (w/ RCS), major modes (i.e., modes in which the behavior of Emacs changes to suit the type of buffer you are working on. E.g., automatic indentation and highlighting in C-mode), integrated compiling with gcc and debugging with gdb, and dired (the file system browser with primative commands for deleting and other simple things). I would have been (and was) seriously lost trying to custimize Emacs without this book.

Other topics covered that I haven't yet mentioned are registers, international character support, tag tables, merging files, email and web browsing capabilities, the calender/diaries, and many other odds and ends.
What this book does not cover is the vast Emacs Lisp system. That is why I'm back on Amazon today to check out the Lisp Reference Manual. Since the Lisp manual is 900+ pages, and this book is already about 600 pages, it's easy to see why they seperated these two. My only gripe with this book is that it has terrible binding :( Oh well, it still easily merits 5 stars.

only clear and useful information
The book covers the complete use of Emacs (except programming Lisp extensions).
The text is most of the time clear and consise. All you will read is useful information. Moreover you often find anwsers to your questions as if the author has anticipated it (probably the experience of the 15 previous editions).
What could be better is the conceptual description of Emacs: What are the variables attached to each buffer, how the major/minor modes affects the variables ... finally what make the state of Emacs at a given time.
As a conclusion: We would like many more books of this quality. ... Read more

Book Description
The GNU Emacs Manual documents the use and simple customization of the popular Emacs editor. GNU Emacs is a member of the Emacs editor family. There are many Emacs editors, all sharing common principles of organization.This is primarily a reference manual, but can also be used as a primer. For complete beginners, it is a good idea to start with the on-line, learn-by-doing tutorial, before reading this manual. This way you can learn Emacs by using Emacs on a specially designed file which describes commands, tells you when to try them, and then explains the results you see.iUniverse.com Computer Books are composed of freely available online computer manuals, industry standard specifications, and electronically distributed computer-programming guides. They include open documents' collections of industry specifications and standards and a collection of the best open source documentation on the Web...the most complete open source library available anywhere.Each book contains the complete, unabridged text of the original document. The on-demand publishing process gives you the actual text of the online document in a convenient, inexpensive, easy-to-use format.And remember...iUniverse.com donates a portion of the profits from open document and open source books to support the mission of the free software community. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

14th edition has all the indices that you need!
(This is a note about the 14th edition--20.7)

One of my favorite technical books from a documentation standpoint is Richard Stallman's superior GNU Emacs Manual. The tool is justly famous and the manual is one of the best written and best organized books I'd ever seen. I've had problems at times figuring out how Emacs works, but when I came across an older edition of this book at a used bookstore, I realized that I simply had to have this book. I've found almost everything I wanted to know from this book and gotten a sense of how everything works. The manual also leaves me with a sense of how wonderfully extensible and versatile the program is. The book contains a glossary, a key index, a command and function index and a concept index. Wow! This is every technical writer's dream! I can generally find the answer to any question within a few seconds when consulting this manual (the help that comes with the program....well, that's another story). Keeping true to the GNU philosophy, Stallman makes the book (as well as a LISP reference guide) available for free at the gnu site.

So the good news is that the book is expertly written and organized. What's the bad news? First, the 14th edition (20.7) book doesn't include a discussion of how to use major modes of Emacs (such as PSGML) or the very handy PCL-CVS. Also, because emacs and xemacs have followed different development paths, Stallman's book doesn't cover the NT-based xemacs implementation. Love or hate xemacs, you have to appreciate the attempt at a GUI, especially when it comes to configuring the program. The package update functionality of Xemacs, could use better documentation as well.

In summary: a masterpiece of documentation, but the manual is sorely in need of a section discussing major mode and emacs. ... Read more

Book Description
The Termcap Library is the documentation for Termcap, a library and database that enables programs to use display terminals in a terminal-independent manner. It originated in Berkeley Unix.

The termcap database describes the capabilities of hundreds of different display terminals in great detail. Some examples of the information recorded for a terminal could include how many columns wide it is, what string to send to move the cursor to an arbitrary position (including how to encode the row and column numbers), how to scroll the screen up one or several lines, and how much padding is needed for such a scrolling operation.

The termcap library is provided for easy access this database in programs that want to do terminal-independent character-based display output. This manual describes the GNU version of the termcap library, which has some extensions over the Unix version. All the extensions are identified as such, so this manual also tells you how to use the Unix termcap. The GNU version of the termcap library is available free as source code.

This book is a printed version of the GNU termcap documentation, available online from the Free Software Foundation. ... Read more

Book Description
For GCC Version 2.95

This thorough reference guide shows how to install, run, debug, configure and port the GNU Compiler Collection. It covers using the C, C++, Objective C, and Fortran front-ends. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

An excellent book on this topic!
An excellent book on addressing the excellent GNU C compiler. As the previous edition, the author give us enough detial information on porting Gnu CC for different platform. I like the porting part of this book sinceit is the unique book in this field. For using GNU CC, yeah, you had betterask Richard Stallman, since he know more than others, right? :)

It isnot a book for a beginner, it needs some background on Compiler and GNU CC.It is an Excellent book on this topic! ... Read more

Book Description
This updated edition for Bison version 1.875 has an expanded 'Concepts' and 'Grammar Files' sections, and a greatly expanded 'Debugging Your Parser' section. There is also a new FAQ section added to the appendix. Some obsolete material was removed as well.Bison is a general-purpose parser generator that can help the C programmer develop a wide range of language parsers, from those used in simple desktop calculators to complex programming languages. The Bison manual provides a quick overview of the theory behind context-free grammars and semantic values. It has both an introductory tutorial section with examples and a reference section which explores parts of Bison in detail.This book teaches you:

* Basic concepts of context-free grammars

* Basic concepts of semantic values and actions

* Bison grammar rules and syntax

* Stages in writing and running Bison grammars

* C-Language interface to the parser function yyparse()

* How to parse more than one language in the same program

* How to detect when an operation for a new node type was not implemented

* How to ensure that a new operation covers all existing node types adequately

* The Lexical Analyzer Function yylex()

* Writing rules for error recovery and yyerror()

* And how to apply the GNU General Public License to your new program. This book assumes the reader already knows the C Programming Language.This manual provides a quick overview of parser generator theory, context-free grammars and semantic values. The introductory tutorial section explains the basic concepts of using Bison and shows three examples, each building on the last. If you don't know Bison or Yacc, start by reading these chapters. The following reference sections explain in greater detail and also cover other supporting programs such as yyparse(), yylex(), and yyerror(). A glossary and symbol table are also included. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

First tool of the system builder
Of course, any major software development will have compilers, parser generators, assemblers, linkers, macro processors, text formatters, test managers, source control, custom tools that themselves need to be built, and a gazillion other bits and pieces that manage source code and its conversion to finished product. Long before you've got more than a few hundred files in a few dozen different formats and a directory hierarchy N deep, mere mortals have become unable to remember all the minutiae needed to guide every input through many steps and into the many outputs it affects. On big, active projects, even shell scripts run out of steam fast.

That's what make is for. Using a combination of pattern-matching techniques and explicit specification, it encapsulates all that knowledge of how the system is built from its pieces. Yes, it's a complex program, but it solves complex problems. If you have just a half-dozen C files and headers, this might seem like a bit much. You're right, it would just add complexity to compiling something so simple. If you've got the Unix source tree though, it's nice to know that anyone can build the whole system, with all the frills, by typing four letters: make.

You can do a lot with just a little bit of make, especially if you're porting make scripts from systems with simpler semantics (i.e. anything that's not GNU make). If you have a big system, though, you have a big problem, and you'll be happy to know about the full power that this remarkable tool puts in your hands. And, if you're thrown into a big, complicated, and existing sytem, you'll cling to the book like a life raft, at least until you learn to paddle around on your own.

Recommending this book is silly, like recommending oxygen to people who breathe. Either you genuinely need this book or you don't. If you do, then nothing else can take its place.

//wiredweird ... Read more