REVIEW: TEACH YOURSELF UNIX IN A WEEK, Dave Taylor, SAMS Publishing 1994 When Dave Taylor e-mailed me asking whether or not I'd be interested in reviewing his book my first reply was that I was not really qualified to evaluate a book about UNIX. This is due to my amazing lack of knowledge and experience with the subject. Sure, I know a very few UNIX survival commands well enough to use my dial-up shell account to access the Net, copy, move and delete files, but that's about it. Anyways, Dave replied that it was written for "just your type of user", so, here goes! Well, after spending a few hours with Dave's book I learned several things about UNIX. First of all, did you know that UNIX was first written so that a Bell Labs programmer named Ken Thompson could improve a game he'd written, presumably on company time, called Space Travel? According to Dave Taylor. that's where it all started....... I also learned several new tricks that I had to try on my dial-in system, like instantly getting monthly or yearly calendars for any year 0 AD to whenever. Just for fun, try this on your UNIX system if you have one`: cal 1752 . Look at September. Something's wrong. Why? The answer is on page 29! TEACH YOURSELF UNIX IN A WEEK will do just that - but you'll have to read three chapters a day and do the examples. I'm not going to detail everything that it covers - this isn't a book you sit down and read. Its a tutorial written by a competent teacher and as such, must be studied. The daily lessons should take you two to three hours but if done in proper sequence, you should be able to come out of the week with a very solid understanding of the UNIX systems, their associated shells, vi, EMACS and all those wonderful acronymic names that have intimidated you since you were first exposed to them. Dave Taylor's presentation is light yet informative and authoratative. Consequently, this book should live up to its title provided you, the reader/student put in the time and effort. I plan to do it over a period of time, lesson-by-lesson, because I'm not in any hurry. But I know even now that once I've finished Dave's book, UNIX and its associated programs and shells will no longer be mysterious and the exclusive province of the nerds and their weenies! %T Teach Yourself UNIX in a Week %A Dave Taylor %I SAMS %C Indianapolis Indiana %D 1994 %O $28.00 %G ISBN: 0-672-30464-3 %P 714 pages, paperbound %K Computer operating systems, UNIX (C) 1995 Michael Crestohl Nahant Massachusetts USA mc@shore.net DISCLAIMER: I have no interest, financial or otherwise, in the success or failure of the book or materials reviewed herewith, nor have I received any compensation (other than a review copy requested by me) from anyone who has. All opinions expressed are strictly my own. Other Internet and Aviation book/software reviews by me can be obtained by anonymous FTP from: x2ftp.oulu.fi in the /pub/books/crestohl directory.