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tutorials:unxnode6 [2012/05/08 17:01] – Fix link, Add Last Revision memnontutorials:unxnode6 [2012/05/08 17:13] (current) – Add footnote memnon
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 I can't recommend any books on using unix. I learned it so long ago that I don't remember what books I used, or even if I used any books. Here are some interesting books about unix, though not exactly about using unix. I can't recommend any books on using unix. I learned it so long ago that I don't remember what books I used, or even if I used any books. Here are some interesting books about unix, though not exactly about using unix.
  
-I like Mike Gancarz's book, The Unix Philosophy, a lot. It talks about the reasons behind writing applications the unix way: with small programs piped together, & with flat, plain text data files. I have heard that Eric Raymond's book, The Art of UNIX Programming, is similar & also good, but I haven't read it myself.5.1+I like Mike Gancarz's book, The Unix Philosophy, a lot. It talks about the reasons behind writing applications the unix way: with small programs piped together, & with flat, plain text data files. I have heard that Eric Raymond's book, The Art of UNIX Programming, is similar & also good, but I haven't read it myself.((I infer from the book's title that Eric Raymond would agree with me that ``unix'' is a functional description of a class of operating systems, not a particular implementation.))
  
 Even though we're talking about using unix, I think an understanding of how operating systems work is useful to know, & Andrew S. Tanenbaum's Modern Operating Systems is an excellent book. It includes a good section about unix. He points out that the defining characteristic about early unix was its 40 system calls. We've added more system calls, but the unix kernel still has a fairly small number of elegant, well-chosen system calls. That's an important part of what makes unix what it is. Even though we're talking about using unix, I think an understanding of how operating systems work is useful to know, & Andrew S. Tanenbaum's Modern Operating Systems is an excellent book. It includes a good section about unix. He points out that the defining characteristic about early unix was its 40 system calls. We've added more system calls, but the unix kernel still has a fairly small number of elegant, well-chosen system calls. That's an important part of what makes unix what it is.