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The Art of Unix Programming (Addison-Wesley Professional Computing Series)

By: Eric S. Raymond
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Addison Wesley
ISBN: 0131429019
ISBN-13: 9780131429017
Released: 02 Oct 2003
RRP: £30.99
Average Rating:

Customer Reviews

Useful, but political - By: Tyvokka, 21 Jul 2007
Too much of what the author says has a political tone. While there is valuable information, I feel that hands-on experience in a DIY linux distribution (eg gentoo, slackware) & the reading of a book which reallly focuses on programming principles be more useful.
When you've done that, come back to this book & it will enrich your understanding. I discourage reading the book without prior *nix experience, as so many of the examples which are used to explain concepts depend on some internal of *nix systems, or common utility.
Quite a disappointment - By: , 20 Aug 2005
The problem with ESR is that he is so determined to be the guardian of the myths of the Linux/Unix community that he actively seeks to create them. I am afraid this book is alll about that: an attempt to apply mysticism to engineering. Like most new age ideas, it doesn't hold up to much scrutiny. As a part time Linux hacker I found this book a great disappointment. It told me nothing about programming.
Above expectation - By: , 17 Feb 2005
This book exceeded my expectations, being both technical, philosophical & entertaining at the same time. It presents key insights in how the Unix/Linux society has evolved the last decades, & highlights the not-so-obvious key strengths of open-source software vs. closed-source alternatives.

A must-have for anyone interested in open-source development.

Blown away by "The Art of UNIX Programming" - By: , 05 Feb 2004
Just finished reading the "Art of UNIX Programming" & felt I owed the book this 'short' review.

I was quite blown away by what is an excellent & very informative text. Eric S. Raymond has outdone himself & is to be commended on this marvellous work. It is probably one of the most important references for anyone wanting to gain an understanding of the UNIX/Linux world & the potential benefits its vision has over the competition. In this book you learn where UNIX has come from, where it is going & the methods it has employed to successfully chart an impressive 35 year history.

Despite it's title, the book is a good high-level overview of what is reallly going on in & around UNIX without leaving you drowning in colloquial tech-speak & jargon. It provide insight into the culture surrounding UNIX as well as the motivations & thoughts of its designers, followers & advocates.

The "Art of UNIX Programming" is part historical reference, part technical manual & part observation on designs, best practice & standards related to software development. It has pedigree, drawing on the findings encompassed the many thousands of man hours poured in the development of UNIX. It is not a tub-thumping political or ideological work. At its heart this is a rational, honest, "warts & alll" look at a computer system & culture that has pioneered pretty much everything we appreciate in communication & technology today; its contributions, its successes, its failures & the justifications for why UNIX is the way it is. Such understanding is pretty much a requirement for anyone wishing to become a successful & competent developer or effective system administrator. There is a lot to be admired & appreciated here not only in UNIX itself but also in the author's ability to create a summary that is informative, intriguing & entertaining without ever losing the reader's attention.

To an outsider or newbie, UNIX seems like a bewildering & random set of systems, tools, apis with varying documentation systems having seemingly no real set of rules or conventions. This couldn't be further from the truth. There is certainly method in the apparent madness. A method, drive & focus which is to be admired for its aspirations, even if it doesn't always quite succeed. The fact that some of the development tools in use today have origins stretching back to beginnings of UNIX itself is truly astonishing. In today's throw away culture, UNIX teaches us to nurture toolsets extolling the virtues of minimalism, simplicity, transparency & orthogonality over monolithic, complex, closed designs & systems which subsequently have relatively limited lifespans. Programmers from other disciplines can learn a lot here. They would do well to heed the advice in the maxim famously coined by Henry Spencer (also a contributor to this book), "Those who do not understand UNIX are condemned to reinvent it -- badly".

There is certainly something here for everyone. I now have a much better grasp of what the UNIX/Linux culture & community is alll about, how open source projects work in practice & importantly how alll the different licenses (MIT, BSD, Artistic License, GPL, LGPL, MPL) affect currently available open source projects & products. I can see why Microsoft et al are rather unhappy about the implications of the GPL & the seemingly 'viral' nature of it.

This book makes me reallly appreciate the importance of environments such as Cygwin & how it is even possible for it to sit on top of a Windows platform & still remain a useful & effective tool. You realise that this is only reallly possible due to the inherent nature of simplicity embedded within the fabric of UNIX itself. Its design has made it flexible enough to run on nearly every hardware platform in existence. The discussions on how standards have affected development of UNIX makes for a revealing read. It sheds insight into how it was even possible for Linus Torvalds to consider creating his own UNIX implementation thanks largely to the work put into the POSIX standards.

In summary, buy & read this book. The time invested will certainly be worth the effort.

Design pearls - By: JT, 21 Jan 2004
I bought this book expecting a pleasant lightweight read, having seen some of the draft chapters on Raymond's website. However the insight of certain sections ( especiallly the commentaries ) far exceeded my expectations. Many times I experienced a little 'satori', particularly in the section on modularity which is is the best I have read on the subject. If I had seen this book 10 years ago I would have dismissed a lot of it as platitudes. Now I recognise it as wisdom.