Build your own LINUX C Toolbox (Two Moon Press software series) (Paperback)

~ Jack Dennon (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

If you've been using DOS, and now have your Linux system up and running, and you want to do C language program development in this new environment, this book is for you. When moving over to Linux, an obstacle some of us soon encounter is the absence of a familiar text editor. Your perferred editor probably is the one with which you are thoroughly familiar. With that thought in mind, what we do here is, we write our own.

From the Author

While yet a child, the originator of Linux, Linus Torvalds, working at the VIC 20 command line, wrote BASIC programs in what is now considered to be an obsolete dialect. Soon he was writing hand-assembled machine code for the VIC 20. The straightforward architecture of Chuck Peddle's 6502 perhaps encouraged Linus to explore and such explorations evidently gave young Linus an excellent grounding in the fundamentals. Where would a young Linus of today find such an accessible rung?

Short of digging a VIC 20 out of the attic, where can today's beginner find a starting place comparable to where Linus started? The thesis of this book is that a beginner is well served by starting at the command line; with programming tools designed primarily for simplicity, tools that assist by helping you explore the consequences of your own decisions rather than attempting to make those decisions for you. This book gives the reader experience at the keyboard, sans mouse, using text mode to communicate with the computer via the time-honored command line.

We cannot know for certain that command line experience contributed to the success of today's top programmers. What we do know for certain is that many of the really skillful programmers of today, such as Linus Torvalds, Alan Cox, Richard Stallman, Theodore Ts'o, Eric S. Raymond, W. Richard Stevens, and so on, did as a matter of fact, begin programming when such experience was the norm. It's true, we don't know for sure, but the odds are, such experience is essential.

Readers who can put this book to advantage include those have been using DOS, and who have found the migration path to Linux seems to ford a rather deep channel. In this book they will find tools to build their own bridge to Linux.

It is a small book. My approach aligns with that of Kernighan & Ritchie who remarked in the preface to their second edition, "C is not a big language, and is not well served by a big book."

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Product Details

• Paperback: 178 pages
• Publisher: Micromethods; 1st edition (September 8, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0970275455
• ISBN-13: 978-0970275455
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 6 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #2,934,783 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Reserve a Spot on Your Bookshelf for This One, March 29, 2001

By	Paul T. Mcnally (Omaha, NE USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This book is great. By working through the examples of the book, you build your own file browser, and ultimately your own text editor. This book is good for anybody who wants an understanding of what Linux is all about in a non intimidating way. The book is packed with everything you need. It is my opinion that you not only get a grounding in programming in C, but an indoctrination to the way of Linux. The most important thing about this book is it gives you a chance to dabble with source code and find out it's easy and fun. Don't be fooled by the size of this book. Great things do come in small packages.

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars That's not the way he went, November 30, 2001

By	Jack Dennon (Warrenton, OR USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

The description on this page states the book is
intended for readers who are Linux beginners, states
a major goal of the book is to present a recipe useful
for creating a text editor of one's own, and details
supporting reasons for doing so; remarking the
reality that the best place for a beginner to begin
is at the beginning, preferably the beginning that was;
where text mode was the norm, where for example
Linus Torvalds began.

Focused exercises using portions of the curses
library directly supporting the stated goal are
the subject of a chapter. Those wishing to use
curses in other applications will find the
exercizes serve to introduce the Linux beginner
to the readily available more comprehensive curses
treatment by Neil Matthew and Richard Stones.

Although Linux appears to have been designed from
the ground up to replicate the functionality of
Unix, fortunately for all of us, Linus Torvalds
ignored experts who declared society held no
requirement for "yet another" Unix.

Criticism meaningfully remarks mismatched goals
versus achievements, advertised versus delivered
product; such as a title promising "Linux Device
Drivers" exhibiting invisible device drivers.
Disparaging intended goals achieved, however,
is like criticising Corrigan for reaching Ireland.
Although experts told him to fly the other way,
that's not the way he went.

1 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Looking from a perspective of useabillity, November 23, 2001

By	Dragan Stanojevic - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Hi all!

This book isn't neceserily a "Linux Programing" book because other than commands to mount the diskette or CD-ROM or DOS partition it really doesn't have anything with Linux but with curses and UNIXoids in general. It creates an editor using curses library under console

Creating yet another editor under Linux is not what Linux society now needs. It would be better that the writer has concentrated on advanced concepts of GNU make, automake, autoconf, gdb, i18n libraries calls, and the linux system programming overall, or at least to describe curses functions as a reference so that the book can be usefull even after one has read it.

The book is perfect for a UNIX/C beggining programer, but considering usability, it has come out 5-7 years to late for any Linux user.

And last, I would reccomend "Programming with GNU Software" from O'Reilly instead.