Advanced UNIX Programming (2nd Edition) (Addison-Wesley Professional Computing Series)

Advanced Programming in the UNIX(R) Environment (2nd Edition) (Addison-Wesley Professional Computing Series)

Unix

The Art of UNIX Programming

Format: Paperback
Author: Eric S. Raymond
ReleaseDate: 17 September, 2003
Publisher: Addison-Wesley Professional
Rating:

Changed the Way I Designed My Own Software Development
. Learning what this book had to teach was a pivotal point in my software development career.. it was the first time I came to an awareness of looking at HOW the design and development process occurred in my job, and really thinking about WHY we did certain things the way we did. My own development methods changed drastically after reading this book, and my own visible changes have had an impact on those that work with me (i. e. it got them thinking as well about how they did their development). ESR's book spent a fair amount of time in the details of some specific software, but those parts came across to me as examples backing up earlier points he had made rather being "I recommend using this software" endorsements. I've learned from ESR's writings that there's almost always an upper-level awareness to be discovered, whether he's explicitly making a point to back up something he's saying, or whether it's something implicit that steers your own thinking towards something he's said. I highly recommend this book to anyone who's been doing software development (especially in a group environment and steered/constrained by that group's processes) for at least a year, perhaps two. If you've been doing this kind of work for more than two years, and never thought deeply at WHY you design your software creations the WAY you do, it's time for you to pick up this book and see what you can glean from it.

Surpassed my expectations
However, what I found was an easy to follow book that illustrates many aspects of Unix programming, explains why they work, and shows examples of all of them. When I first started reading this book, I expected to hear a considerable amount of Microsoft trashing and everything else that follows from fanatical Microsoft haters.

The organization of the chapters is logical and the emphasis on the Unix philosophy helps with the flow of the book. Raymond starts out by enumerating the philosophy and writing a bit about each one. Many are universal, as "The Rule of Separation", "The Rule of Diversity" or "The Rule of Least Surprise" in user interfaces. However, many others are specific to Unix and its descendants such as "The Rule of Silence" and others. From there on, Raymond takes off to talk about how Unix is designed and implemented guided by the items of the Unix philosophy.

The book also includes a nice history of Unix section, which is pretty much the history of modern computing. Reading it made me all warm and fuzzy inside; it was both entertaining and informative. A must-read.

Where this book falls shortly is in some criticisms of non-Unix related topics. Object oriented programming is apparently not appreciated by Raymond. I don't agree with a lot of his claims about how object oriented programming over-complicates things. In my opinion, writing in procedural languages is messy stuff. Also, this man seems to think everything in Unix is simply perfect. Although a bit annoying at times, in many instances the result is positive becase his passion for the topic is clear.

Even though there is no code, it didn't take anything away from reading. The knowledge gained from it is HUGE because of the amount of material covered, and it WILL make you a better programmer, independent of whatever OS background you are from.

Where is the beef?


What a misleading title. I join the other reviewer who complained about the book having no code at all.
The reason i came here to read the reviews is that i saw it on sale for just $10, and after going thru the pages found that it's not much use for a professional developer's day job.