kernighan & pike book

[edhall%rand-unix at sri-unix.UUCP]

I expected someone else to comment by now, but since no one has, I'll
give you my two-cents' worth.

I've skimmed through the entire book and studied the introductory
chapter and bits and pieces scattered through it, so this isn't
meant to be a definitive review--just a first impression.

1) The book is pretty `meaty'.  It has some pretty sophisticated
examples (a calculator language that grows into a mini-programming
language is developed in later chapters), and the level of sophis-
tication expected seems about on a par with The C Programming
Language.  Not for neophytes to computing.  It has the effrontery
to explain YACC in a few pages and them proceed to *use* it.

2) It presents a lot of information.  The second chapter explains
the Unix filesystem: it not only *mentions* inodes, it goes over
in great detail what the various fields in the inode structure
mean.  In later chapters programs like AWK and SED are presented
in fairly good detail (enough, I would guess, to be useful, which
is more than I can say for the manual pages or most introductory
texts).

3) K&P aren't afraid to call a misfeature a mistake, or to present
a strong opinion, though they label it as such.  I find this
refreshing compared to the breathless praise some Unix books give.

4) This book is truest to the `Unix Philosophy' as I understand
it.  The concept of well-defined tools is presented and used
repeatedly. `Small is beautiful' philosophy is there but subdued.

5) I found the examples refreshingly uncontrived (or humorously
contrived).  The attitude I get is `this is serious business, but
not *that* serious'.

6) I would not hesitate to recommend this book to someone who was
already fairly knowledgable about computer systems and who has
good access to a Unix system (K&P reccommend reading the book
beside your terminal and trying things for yourself as you
encounter them).  But I think it might be a waste of money to
someone who does not have such experience.  It assumes a bit more
than the common introductory texts do.  Not an easy read, but not
a boring one, either.

'nuff said for now.  I'm sure other people will have more (and
likely better) comments as time goes on.

		-Ed Hall
		edhall at rand-unix        (ARPA)
		decvax!randvax!edhall   (UUCP)