Customer Reviews

UNIX AWK and SED Programmer's Interactive Workbook (UNIX Interactive Workbook)

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1 star:		(1)

 

 

As a computer consultant, I sometimes need to train 'folks' that haven't had too much time in front of a computer. For those souls that have grown used to Windows, UNIX has the potential to strike fear in a way that I've seldom seen duplicated. This text offers the BEST environment for teaching UNIX and AWK that I have seen.

There are UNIX and AWK reference books galore, but none of them take a systematic approach to TEACHING the subject, (no, not even teach yourself, or the Dummies versions). This book reviews each command and ends with a generous question section. (Not just one or two questions at a high level, and not just one really complicated question - the questions build very nicely to the hardest issues.)

If you are looking for a reference book, this will do, though there are others that I would prefer, but if you are learning UNIX and AWK on your own, or looking to teach it to someone else, this book gets my highest recommendation. I have given it now to everyone I have trained and all have had great success with it. I would feel entirely comfortable handing this book to a trainee, and with no further instruction allowing them to code when they've finished. " An absolute gift"

The idea of a workbook format was good, but the concepts weren't explained well. I read sections over many times only to think, why didn't it just say that? It was a frustrating book to read. You could probably get the information faster and more painlessly from another book.

It was really hard to understand as a beginner like other reviewers. It makes you keep wonder why you don't follow and don't get much explanation. Well, the first chapter was okay as the introduction of regular expressions, but you get lost by the time you try to understand the excersises in chapter 2. Have you ever had the feeling that you feel like you want to go back again and again but you still goes far and far from the point? It is frustrationg. However, this kind of book could be useful for the teachers, definitely not for learners.

I was very disappointed in this book. The descriptions and samples are very tough to follow, needing re-reading many times to follow. The Web site link does not work, so answers to the "test your thinking" sections cannot be found, nor the sample files. I suggest looking elsewhere and not get this book. It is just too painful to wade through, and is fond of making simple subjects much to obtuse.

I am an Oracle DBA. So far sed is enough for my file processing chores.Since I may need AWK later on, I am very interested in learing AWK now.
Thanks a great deal, Peter ! I bought the book yesterday. It cut
down my fear about AWK. The way Peter shows AWK makes it easy to understand ! Many people are great programmers but to write a book, you MUST be a be a great TEACHER besides a great expert in this field. Pater is the right one.
I had this in my mind on my way home:AWK is not hard , all you need is to have Peter as the teacher !

Peter: What is your teaching background if you don't mind ?

Prentice Hall: I love your 'interactive workbook', I bought almost half of all your titiles !
Thank you for choosing excellent teachers to write those books ! This is an absolutelly successsful project! I hope to see more books like this !