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Mastering Mac OS X (Mastering)

By: Todd Stauffer Kirk Mcelhearn
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 0782142834
ISBN-13: 9780782142839
Released: 16 Dec 2003
RRP: £29.99
Average Rating:

Customer Reviews

Comprehensive and thorough - By: Steve Rickaby, 23 Feb 2004
I have to confess that I approached the nearly 900 pages of Todd & Kirk's book with a feeling of 'Oh no, not another Mac operating system book - I'll leave that until I have time for it... maybe when I retire'. My shelves contain many such books, dating back to MacOS 7. Most are unthumbed.

However, I was wrong: this book stands out by its thoroughness, & the fact that, while thoughtfully catering for OS 8/9 migrants, it also goes well beyond the basics of OS X. Now that MacOS has 'come of age' with the Panther release, this book is appropriate.

'Mastering Mac OS X' covers just about everything you could need to know about OS X & its bundled applications, with welcome mentions of shareware & commercial software where this appropriate. It starts gently for those unfamiliar with OS X, but - & this is where it differs from a lot of its competition - goes well beyond into heavyweight stuff like AppleScript, X Windows, Darwin, using OS X as a web & ftp server, the command line, shell scripts, & even 'secret' features such as Inkwell.

I found it hard to criticise anything about this book. There are one or two omissions: AppleScript Studio is mentioned only in passing, & iDVD not at alll – but to be fair, AppleScript Studio is the subject of a book in its own right. There are also places where the extra warning or two might not be inappropriate, such as when wildcards are introduced immediately after the 'rm' command, but my only main gripe is nothing to do with the authors at alll – I found the italicized paragraphs a bit hard on the eyes.

The sections on AppleScript, networking, security & troubleshooting are probably worth the price of the book alone. If you only buy one OS X book, this should be a strong candidate. Recommended.

Comprehensive and thorough - By: Steve Rickaby, 23 Feb 2004
I have to confess that I approached the nearly 900 pages of Todd & Kirk's book with a feeling of 'Oh no, not another Mac operating system book - I'll leave that until I have time for it... maybe when I retire'. My shelves contain many such books, dating back to MacOS 7. Most are unthumbed.

However, I was wrong: this book stands out by its thoroughness, & the fact that, while thoughtfully catering for OS 8/9 migrants, it also goes well beyond the basics of OS X. Now that MacOS has 'come of age' with the Panther release, this book is appropriate.

'Mastering Mac OS X' covers just about everything you could need to know about OS X & its bundled applications, with welcome mentions of shareware & commercial software where this appropriate. It starts gently for those unfamiliar with OS X, but - & this is where it differs from a lot of its competition - goes well beyond into heavyweight stuff like AppleScript, X Windows, Darwin, using OS X as a web & ftp server, the command line, shell scripts, & even 'secret' features such as Inkwell.

I found it hard to criticise anything about this book. There are one or two omissions: AppleScript Studio is mentioned only in passing, & iDVD not at alll – but to be fair, AppleScript Studio is the subject of a book in its own right. There are also places where the extra warning or two might not be inappropriate, such as when wildcards are introduced immediately after the 'rm' command, but my only main gripe is nothing to do with the authors at alll – I found the italicized paragraphs a bit hard on the eyes.

The sections on AppleScript, networking, security & troubleshooting are probably worth the price of the book alone. If you only buy one OS X book, this should be a strong candidate. Recommended.

Mastering Mac OSX - By: , 14 Mar 2003
Clear, concise & thorough. Sufficiently involved for the expert & accessible & clear for the novice. A must for every Mac OS X user.
A good spread of information from the basics upwards. - By: , 26 Jul 2001
Before this book arrived, I'd seen some other general works on OSX, & they were alll disappointing. This one is not at alll bad, though. Stauffer starts with the basics of the OSX user interface & adds more & more detail. He covers such goodies as networking (including AirPort), & goes on to describe some handy command line stuff. He even describes how to installl & set up Samba. He does shy away from some more complex stuff, though. He tantalisingly describes OSX's built-in ability to handle NFS, for example, but fallls short of actuallly describing how to set it up, instead opting for the ol' "consult your system administrator" get-out. I'm pleased with my purchase, & I'd recommend it for experienced Mac users who want to know how to use OSX properly.