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Unix: Visual QuickStart Guide (2nd Edition)


by Deborah S. Ray, Eric J. Ray

Reviewer Jennifer Buckendorff says:
      "In Unix: Visual QuickStart Guide, the authors take the time to explain correct Unix lingo as well as concepts and processes to be aware of as a daily user. The real-life implication of reading Unix is not only that you won't receive irate messages from your system administrator, but that you'll be able to manipulate your Unix environment, making it a genuinely enjoyable workspace.
      For more experienced users, there are plenty of cool tools and shortcuts to make the book worthwhile (sdiff, head, and procmail, for example). The authors provide a generous section on scripting--a good introduction for advanced users who may be spending too much time on repetitive tasks. The authors also touch on how to intelligently include regular expressions in searching, a pleasant addition to an already outstanding section.
      Some of the authors' decisions on what to include merit warning, although not enough that users should turn away from this book: the authors only cover the bash, ksh, and csh shells; they focus on only the pico and vi editors--not emacs; and their excellent section on e-mail covers only pine (briefly mentioning that elm really isn't worth its salt for a new user). While the book isn't all-inclusive, it isn't meant to be. The authors make their preferences clear, and for the user, this amounts to a good deal of clarity and time saved.

Unix: Visual QuickStart Guide (2nd Edition)
by Deborah S. Ray, Eric J. Ray - List Price: $21.99, Price: $15.39 You Save: $6.60 (30%) Paperback: 432 pages ; Dimensions (in inches): 0.87 x 9.04 x 7.04, Publisher: Peachpit Press; 2nd edition (March 27, 2003)

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