Home :: Books :: Computers & Internet  

Arts & Photography
Audio CDs
Audiocassettes
Biographies & Memoirs
Business & Investing
Children's Books
Christianity
Comics & Graphic Novels
Computers & Internet

Cooking, Food & Wine
Entertainment
Gay & Lesbian
Health, Mind & Body
History
Home & Garden
Horror
Literature & Fiction
Mystery & Thrillers
Nonfiction
Outdoors & Nature
Parenting & Families
Professional & Technical
Reference
Religion & Spirituality
Romance
Science
Science Fiction & Fantasy
Sports
Teens
Travel
Women's Fiction
Unix Network Programming

Unix Network Programming

List Price: $86.65
Your Price: $86.65
Product Info Reviews

<< 1 2 >>

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Contrasts
Review: Complete and detailed book, with practical examples almost everywhere, and a particular emphasis is put on the TCP/IP internet protocol suite.

But not very nice editing and layout, and a bit confusing at some points.

Around the first 85 pages are dedicated to UNIX in general (signals, daemons, filesystem general structure), and not dedicated to networking.

But it talks about the UNIX techniques you will need in the rest of the book, so you won't really need any other and no assumptions about your networking knowledge are done.

The real book starts providing a detailed description of IPC techniques: pipes, FIFOs, streams, message queues, semaphores, shared memory. It might result confusing when to use each technique and how to combine them.

But each of them comes with comprehensive client-server examples and several file locking implementations that help to fully understand the text, and comparisions and valuable advices.

A few tables are outdated now.

But this is no problem as they are available in your UNIX kernel configuration or include files, and the book shows how to find the right values in each case.

A chapter is dedicated to explain networking terms and concepts (OSI models, byte ordering, buffering, multiplexing, routing..)

But even if it's more than enough to understand how everything presented in the book works, in my opinion its a bit short.

Several protocol suites are described (TCP/IP, XNS, SNA, NetBIOS, OSI, UUCP) so it might be hard to choose the right one for your application.

But the different characteristics and services they provide are compared making this choice easier.

Stevens makes a thorough description of the Berkeley Socket Interface and the System V TLI communication protocol APIs, providing examples and useful routines like the implementation of a reliable UDP/IDP protocol that is later used in some of the project examples in the last part of the book (tftp, lpd, rmt, rlogind, ...), each of them explained in detail.

But for some people this might be too much C source code (around 15000 lines, claims the author), and not enough real life problems or advices. A matter of taste.

There is a part dedicated to security, which explains the Kerberos authentication system and the standard .rhosts, which is applied to the rlogind example.

But the Kerberos chapter along with the one dedicated to the Apollo, Xerox Courier and Sun RPCs, even if they provide enough descriptions and examples, seem to be a bit too short.

In general, I'd say it's a complete book about network programming under UNIX which provides in-depth explanations of the main communication protocols and techniques. And since communication is often a must under UNIX, a very useful book to have near your keyboard.

No buts here, get it :)



Rating: 5 stars
Summary: A "must-have" classic programming text
Review: Don't let the title fool you - this book is more about writing robust applications in UNIX than mere network programming.
In his trademark crisp and to-the-point style, Tanenbaum describes UNIX from the C programmer's point of view. The book groups system calls by domain (file I/O, IPC etc) and illustrates different usage scenarios. This is one of few texts that explain the *why* aspect of system calls, not just the *how*. After reading this book, you will have gained insight on improving your current programming project, and understand UNIX inside-out.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: A "must-have" classic programming text
Review: Don't let the title fool you - this book is more about writing robust applications in UNIX than mere network programming.
In his trademark crisp and to-the-point style, Tanenbaum describes UNIX from the C programmer's point of view. The book groups system calls by domain (file I/O, IPC etc) and illustrates different usage scenarios. This is one of few texts that explain the *why* aspect of system calls, not just the *how*. After reading this book, you will have gained insight on improving your current programming project, and understand UNIX inside-out.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: 21st Century? Yes, buy this book.
Review: Great book, I've read it cover to cover. But why buy it when the author has newer versions out? Because (1) it is more concise and (2) it has info not in the other editions. I recommend you read this one cover-to-cover and buy the others as more detailed reference. His 3 other books (Advanced Programming in the Unix Environment, Unix Net. Prog.,2nd Ed., Vol.1; Unix Net. Programming, 2nd Ed., Vol.2) are far more detailed and worth having, but each is very thick. AND, the author died without finishing Unix Network Programming, 2nd Ed., Vol.3 (Applications). You have to buy this older edition to get the applications. It's easier to read 1 book 700 pp. long than to read 3 books, each 700 pp. long. Time is money.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: A Unix Bible
Review: I have been actively involved in computer software/hardware for close to 20 years and have purchased probably 200+ books in this time period. Over 75% I wish I hadn't purchased. This book is probably in my top 10 however.

This book is what's called a "Bible". It's an authoritive reference on Unix networking and communications (ipc/rpc) and much else. I equate it to the Kernighan & Ritchie C book, etc.

I wouldn't recommend this book to someone new to computers, but if you have a few years under your belt, or are an eager-beaver then go ahead...you won't regret your purchase.

The author uses a simple client/server program example (a simple file server) and then goes through several iterations/revisions, each using a different IPC mechanism to accomplish same task. A great technique for exploring new concepts...tie them all to a single program design with the program evolving to use different APIs/IPC mechanisms.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: a classical book on network programming.
Review: I like the books written by Mr.Stevens. I have heard of his name a long time ago.And I greatly admire him. The network programming is hot because of the development of Internet.This book teaches you how to write correct and efficient programs on networks.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: It's a great book
Review: If you are serious about network programming, buy this book, and this book alone is enough.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Pl. provide table of contents
Review: It would have been a great help if table of contents are provided online for this book

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Good and Difficult
Review: Network programming was never meant to be easy. It has simply too many details and functions, to make it mind boggling. So an excellent reference is in order.

I had read TCP/IP Illustrated I by Richard Stevens and found it an excellent read. Which is why I bought this book. Frankly, I was a bit dissapointed with it.

In the TCP/IP book, Stevens explains concepts with the help of diagrams and examples. This book, on the other hand, reads like a listing of various programs which make no sense. I found it very diffcult to use as my first programming book.

If you have some knowledge of network programming, you shuld buy this book. But if you are a novice like me, then think twice about it.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: My rating: PERFECT '10' .
Review: Nothing could match this book as far as Unix networking is concerned. This book is simply great for all programmers who want to have a firm grip on Unix network programming. Stevens has dealt with all the topics keeping in view the knowledge level of the programmers who would be chosing this book for their help. I would suggest everyone to keep the 'Advanced Programming in UNIX environment' by Stevens by your side when you are reading this book. This book is again perfect'10' I must say. Just go and grab both these books!!!


<< 1 2 >>

© 2004, ReviewFocus or its affiliates