Teach Yourself® UNIX® 4th Edition [Paperback]

Kevin Reichard (Author), Eric Foster-Johnson (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 1558285881 | ISBN-13: 978-1558285880 | Publication Date: July 1999 | Edition: 4th

This tutorial allows new or intermediate-lev el users to review the basics of a UNIX session. The new or expanded topics include the common desktop environment (CDE) , and additional UNIX commands. '

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Teach Yourself Unix, Third Edition, does a fair job of explaining commands to newer users, but truly distinguishes itself with its attention to C and Perl programming. The book also contains a good command reference and glossary but loses some credibility with the appearance of several errors.

Teach Yourself Unix, Third Edition, would serve the reader better if it used different section-titling conventions. For example, "Using the -R Option with Ls" tells the reader nothing; something like "Listing Files in Subdirectories," which is what the -R switch is used for, would be better.

This book also suffers from some production problems. The sections about cc, the C compiler, consistently call the program Cc in their headings. The command ls gets called Ls in headings. Though this clearly is the work of a publishing package that puts headings into title case, Unix is case-sensitive and typing Cc in place of cc or Ls in place of ls will usually cause an error. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

About the Author

Eric Foster-Johnson is a veteran programmer and computer book author. Faced with incompatible and problematic systems, his main goal is to ensure others don't experience the same pains he did. His books include Cross-Platform Perl, Graphical Applications with Tcl and Tk, and UNIX Programming Tools.; Kevin Reichard is the author of 24 books for IDG Books Worldwide, including Linux Configuration and Installation and UNIX in Plain English. He's the Web Advisor columnist for Performance Computing.

Product Details

• Paperback: 397 pages
• Publisher: Mis Pr; 4th edition (July 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1558285881
• ISBN-13: 978-1558285880
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 7.8 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,070,992 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Alas in UNIX-land, September 26, 2000

By 

John McConnell (Boston, MA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Teach Yourself...Unix (Teach Yourself...(Mis Pr)) (Paperback)

The fourth edition is very helpful. The style is clear and plain, but overall this book would be improved by more attention paid to actual tasks than to commands per se, especially since some of these commands (to a newcomer) are cryptic. Nevertheless by taking notes and highlighting the index, it's easy enough to navigate this book. There's a helpful listing of major UNIX commands in the back. The book covers "getting started" (logging on and off, etc.), file and directory basics, UNIX tools (basic 'vi' stuff - the text editor), command customization, C/Korn/Bash shells, multitasking, the Internet and e-mail, FTP, shell and C++ programming basics, and system administration.

As the authors state, the book is kept brief (397 pages) to ensure simple delivery of what's most needed to get started pushing buttons. The format is similar to Who's Afraid of C++? in that it tries to be user-friendly by supplying small quizzes and simple tasks at each chapter's conclusion to ensure you've grasped the basic ideas presented. This book can prove to be a life saver in any situation involving molecular orbital calculations involving UNIX navigation (C shell). Overall, this is a sympathetic and clear-cut introduction to UNIX.

3.0 out of 5 stars Geat Book...but Lacking, September 12, 1998

By 

[e-mail] (Newport Beach, California) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Teach Yourself...Unix (Teach Yourself...(Mis Pr)) (Paperback)

This is a great book to introdce newbies to the world of Unix. However, due to the fact that it is a little old the Internet part is basically useless. Another thing is that all the complicated tasks are left unexplained. And they don't tell you how to configure X.