May 30 2002
Learning Unix For MacOS X
A review of O’Reilly’s new book, “Learning Unix For MacOS X” has just been posted in the reviews section of the site. If you haven’t delved into terminal.app yet it’s about time to!
Note:
May 30 2002
Learning Unix For MacOS X
As soon as the UPS man left my door step and I saw the box that this gem was
in I was stunned. It was so small! Small for computer books is anything under
400 pages and this book sure weighs in less than that. It’s bigger than a Pocket
Reference but smaller than most O’Reilly books. After reading it I can truthfully
say that "size really doesn’t matter"!
I have been using OS X for a while – about 10 months full time. Before
that I was off and on but I have always had a fascination with the terminal.
I was one of those kids that installed Darwin on a second hard drive before
OS X was out. Now you can just log into X with the name ">console"
and your root password and get the equivalent of Darwin (no GUI). I knew my
way around the Unix file system and "Pico’d" many a file before getting
any formal training. A lot of my knowledge was from trial and error. I learned
the commands ls, man and cd from a website and then went nuts.
I knew a good bit of this book before picking it up but I am MUCH more confident
with the terminal now. It walks you through with great examples in a
very easy to understand manner. I learned the most about linking programs together
(with a pipe). That confused me prior to getting the book but now I’m laying
down pipes like a plumber! 
**apologizes for cheesy line**
This books is everything (and more) that I had to learn by trial and error and
complex man pages. My only regret is that this wasn’t available a year ago.
I would have paid TWICE the price just to save the time/frustration that I spent
learning what I had.
The back page is a nifty reference card that has all of the common commands
on it. I was thinking of making something like this for MacMerc but it’s a moot
point now. The book is also ADC Recommended which means it was checked over
by official APPLE programmers and they recommend it to the world. Not
many books can make this claim. Way to go O’Reilly!
If you are just starting your walk with the Terminal do yourself a favor and
spend the $13.88.
Even if you were like me and thought you knew your stuff, it would be
wise to check for this book at your local store and see if you really do. What
this book isn’t is exhaustive – it covers what it aims to well but doesn’t
cover advanced topics. This is probably a good thing because it not only keeps
the size/price down it doesn’t lose focus of its audience – beginning
to moderate Unix users. It doesn’t matter how good you are with the GUI
– this is a whole different ball game!
…and now for something completely different.
Leave a Reply
Tasty Linkage
Meanwhile, at Joy of Tech…
