UNIX(r) Shell Programming, 4th Edition

Rating:
Summary: Flow and Flaw
Review: The "flow" in the book looks to be good. But the flaw is in explaining the examples. No explanation has been given for some important (atleast for me) examples! C shell examples are rarely discussed. The book says "It helps you to develop Bourne, C, or Korn Shell mastery step-by-step, whether you're a beginner or a ....", which I feel is not true.

Rating:
Summary: Don't even think about buying this book - You will regret!
Review: The authors of this book provide an unorganized method to mislead the experienced readers about what they already understood and confuse the novices the concept of UNIX. The book is written in non-techical writing, which makes it a "special" reference guide.

Rating:
Summary: Poor for beginners and too few examples
Review: The book professes to offer knowledge for all levels of users. However, only an experienced Unix user and script writer will get anything from the book. The authors use sed, awk and other tools in the examples, but most novice Unix users know little about scripting let alone sed and awk. Also, the examples were few, poor and often too complex for the novice to mid range Unix user. Unless you are an experienced Unix script writer, avoid this book. Perhaps one of the poorest teaching books I have ever read. I wish I could get my money back!

Rating:
Summary: Good and very bad
Review: This book almost reads like something that was once great and then was "improved" to something less than it once was. I found that there are some very useful tips in the text which are supplemented by inaccurate examples. I have found examples which are not related to the surrounding text as well as examples which contradict the text. I like the overall plan of the book and, strangely, I have found parts of it very helpful. There was a distinct point, however, where I started to focus more on the errors than on the information, which became a serious distraction and lowered my review from four stars to three, and then eventually to two.

Rating:
Summary: Good and very bad
Review: This book almost reads like something that was once great and then was "improved" to something less than it once was. I found that there are some very useful tips in the text which are supplemented by inaccurate examples. I have found examples which are not related to the surrounding text as well as examples which contradict the text. I like the overall plan of the book and, strangely, I have found parts of it very helpful. There was a distinct point, however, where I started to focus more on the errors than on the information, which became a serious distraction and lowered my review from four stars to three, and then eventually to two.

Rating:
Summary: This book is pretty good!
Review: This book does a wonderful job of instructing the reader how to program using Unix shells. It has a lot of detail and usage, and syntax for usage is mostly clarified. The only thing I found wrong with this book was that it needed a little more clarification for the beginnner. Perhaps just a section at the beginning. There was a section titled "Shell for the Novice", but it still was a little too advanced for the novice, in my opinion. Still, it's a good book!

Rating:
Summary: Save a tree and don't buy this book.
Review: This book is filled with confusion. The authors do not appear to fully understand Unix shell programming. It is not a good reference or a good tutorial. If you buy this book, you are wasting money, time, and trees.

Rating:
Summary: Save your money for the next one.
Review: This book lacks real-world examples of implementation. The authors give you little more than what you can obtain from the Unix man pages. In addition, the book contains several bad approaches to problem solutions. This text is for the advanced Unix programmer only. Unfortunately, the advanced Unix programmer will soon tire of the presentation style, which is definately not tutorial.

Rating:
Summary: I think UNIX Shell Programing is excellent as well!
Review: This is not a how-to book. I don't understand all the negative reviews either. I continue to find this book useful. This book explains variations in the multiple shells and techniques that help put shell scripts together to make them do what you want. It also provides insight to how pieces of code interact and function with each other. This is an excellent brainstorm book when you are developing a shell script or stuck somewhere along the way. Highly recommended

Rating:
Summary: Don't even waste time to look at the cover!
Review: This is the WORST textbook I've ever seen. I had wasted lots of time to read it but learn nothing from it. I don't want to waste time to comment too much. Just to tell those of U who are reading this comment - don't buy it! Save money, save trees for another book.