Customer Reviews

New KornShell Command And Programming Language, The (2nd Edition)

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I make my living writing Korn shell, and of all the books on Korn, this is the one I could least do without.

Pros: I've known people to buy this book simply for its back cover, as the index of topics on the back is enough to dig up information on the topics covered. The book is dense, not a tutorial really, more a reference text for ksh related topics. This is a book to be read on an as-needed basis, a cookbook for the "how do I get -this- to work!?" crowd.

Cons: I don't recommend it as anyone's first programming book. Even for the systems administrator, I'd recommend Nemeth et al. and Aeleen Frisch's books on administration as supplements for Unix related topics. There are essential things about shells and shell scripting (statically linked versus dynamically linked shells) that will never be learned in a shell programming book, that are critical to knowing when and where a shell language can be used.

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This is a comprehensive, useful book detailing all aspect of the new Korn Shell. The Korn shell is not just a UNIX shell, but also a programming language that is powerful and well suited for a UNIX power user. If you are not computer or UNIX savy, you would be better off using the csh (C-SHELL).

Since, the Korn shell is powerful and hence, more complicated than typical UNIX shell programs. The need for a good book on the subject is mandatory for those who wish to master it.

It also contains a good tutorial and, my favorite, a quick reference guide on the back cover. The quick reference is a very useful item worth photocopying and pinning to the wall by your workstation. Each entry is keyed to the page with more detailed information on the command. It is fast and handy.

Anyone who reads this book will develop a better understanding of shells in general. The author explains many of the common shell tools such as piping and redirection.

This book is an excellent text for the subject. I strong recommend it for those who are presently Korn shell users or those who wish to master this shell. It includes everything you will ever need to know about the shell.

KORN Shell Index:

Part I: Introduction

1. About the KornShell Lanuage

2. Notation used in this book

Part II: Turorial

3. Operating System Concepts

4. Command Language

5. Programming Language

6. Customizing your environment

Part III: Built-In Editors

7. Introduction

8. emacs Built-In Editor

9. vi Built-In Editor

Part IV: Programming Language

10. Syntax

11. Command Processing

12. Compound Commands

13. Parameters

14. Built-In Commands

15. Other Commands

16. Invocation and Environment

Part V: Application Programming

17. Shell Funcitons and Programs

18. A Complete Application

Part VI : Apprendix

19 Glossary

20. Quick Refernce

21. Portability

22. Character Set

Index

Quick Index-Back Cover

While it may be a bit heavy for beginners, this book is full of good info for more experienced ksh users and programmers, especially if you want to use more of the built in features included with the 1993 release. Beginners might want to try out O'Reilly's Learning the Korn Shell, even though it only covers the 1988 version of ksh. This book is geared for folks who already have a bit of time working with ksh. Keeping that in mind, I think it's the best resource available for the shell available, especially considering Dr. Korn wrote the book.

I have been using this book in my shell scripting classes for
about seven years now. I still find it to be the best
reference. One of the many things I like about it is that it
clearly identifies ksh88 and newer (e.g., ksh93) features. It
does not address pdksh, found on many Linux systems as /bin/ksh,
but you can get real AT&T ksh93 for free so why use pdksh? My
only complaint is that the book is rather long in the tooth
(1995) and there are a lot of new features in ksh93-k+ let alone
ksh93-o (the current release). A new edition is overdue.

In the same shell scripting class, I teach ksh93, nawk, sed, and
expect. I find, with this book, the students can do everything
they might have done in nawk or sed in straight ksh93. Other
ksh books do not, in my experience, give the students the
information necessary that they can do that.

There is no one better than Mr. Korn himself to offer the clearest, most complete information about KornShell. The usefulness of this book as a language reference is indisputable. Although not immediately comprehensible by the novice, it is, nevertheless, essential to all KornShell programmers. The back cover index is one of the nicest features of the book. I only wish more books would use this design.

Every new technology should have major technical reference material written by its inventor or creator available to the general public. In the UNIX world, such works are common. I enthusiastically recommend this book for all KornShell programmers. For those that find it difficult initially, I assure you that you will grow into it, and it will eventually find its place close at hand in your office library.

Book is geared for more experienced users. I use it mainly as a reference book. In fact, I carry it around with me in my briefcase.

Hard to get much more definitive than a book from Dave Korn himself. Tells you everything, but it's disorganized so you'll hunt to find out where everything is. Even with it's flaws, it's still indispensible though. Plenty of examples, which usually teach you better than the explanations.

Is David Korn the author of the Korn shell? I usually don't quite care about the author. But this book is excellent. It makes me believe Perl cannot completely replace unix shell programming.

Even with the emergence of newer shells, the ksh is still the shell of choice in many systems. This book will carry you much farther than the man page is designed for. There are practical examples and the commands are laid out clearly with all the options. Everything from what is a shell to parameter expansions and attributes are explained. There is even a section on optimizing the environment.

If you already have a copy, be sure to purchase the next revision, as this is a living shell and as it evolves, new revisions are sure to be printed.

Most experienced Sysadmins recommand the use of the TC shell for interactive use and the Korn shell for writing scripts. Fine. Except that this book does not provide a good introduction to writing scripts. Even the experienced script writer will be at a loss in the details the authors go.

The examples are useless: they never say what they are supposed to do and they never tell you the results.

And main criticism: I have yet to find a system where the _new_ kornshell (which came out in 93) is installed...