Reviews

Reviews

Book review: Learning Perl by Randal L Schwartz, Tom Phoenix, and brian d foy

The book Learning Perl will teach the reader how to begin writing code using the Perl language. The authors are not new to this subject matter. Randal L. Schwartz wrote Programming Perl with Larry Wall in 1991. Larry Wall being the father of Perl. Tom Phoenix has worked for years as a lead trainer on this subject; brian d foy is referred to as a fellow instructor and the lead writer for this fourth edition of the book. It would be hard to find a more qualified group to learn from. O’Reilly publishes this work in their familiar style and format.

Book review: UNIX to Linux Porting by Alfredo Mendoza et. al

Converting a brilliant and specially customized C or C++ application from a generic UNIX OS to GNU/Linux has the potential to be painful, costly and time consuming. From comical personal experience I find that Murphy smiles and laughs at such rich complexities. “UNIX to Linux Porting: A Comprehensive Reference” gives psychological handle bars for those of you that wish to plan or enact a porting project for the first time and a comprehensive reference for the more experienced. This book details the main differences between Solaris, AIX, HP-UX and GNU/Linux.

Book review: Linux Annoyances for Geeks by Michael Jang

This book provide tips, work-arounds and solutions to common problems encountered with Linux. It contains practical “under the hood” information that everyone who deals with Linux should know about. Many of the documented “annoyances” are addressed all over the internet, so let me explain what makes this book worth the price you pay...

Linux Annoyances For GeeksLinux Annoyances For Geeks

Book review: Beginning Ubuntu Linux: From Novice to Professional by Keir Thomas

Are you, or do you know, a non-techie? A non-techie who takes pride in their lack of techno-savvy, who still clings to the belief that while other people might use GNU/Linux, it’s a bit technological for the likes of them? Someone who takes pride in being a passive computer user, who wants it all spelled out in black and white?

Book review: PHP 5 Power Programming by Stig Bakken, Andi Gutmans, Derick Rethans

PHP is, in my opinion, the best computer language for developing almost any kind of web application. The authors of “PHP 5 Power Programming” apparently agree—they’ve written the most in-depth guide to the changes and new features in PHP 5 I have ever seen. Many free software web applications such as blog tools and content management systems are written in this versatile language.

The book’s coverThe book’s cover

Book review: User Mode Linux by Jeff Dike

“User Mode Linux” by Jeff Dike discusses a specific form of virtualization. UML is a Linux virtual machine contained within the GNU/Linux operating environment. The technique allows you to run multiple sandboxed virtual instances of Linux from one machine under a master Linux operating system. This is always good for server consolidation, security and development. In this book, a potentially complex subject area has been tamed and discussed with well grounded commonsense and practical examples by the original creator and current maintainer of the software. Virtualization is a hot topic.

Book review: Write Great Code by Randall Hyde

In our era of more powerful personal computers, applications that were once quick and simple have become larger, slower, and full of bloat. Any one of these application’s developers would have done well to have picked up a copy of Randall Hyde’s Write Great Code Volume 2: Thinking Low-level, writing high-level, published by No Starch Press. Write Great Code Volume 2 exceeds its goal of helping developers pay more attention to application performance when writing applications in high-level languages.

Book review: The Business and Economics of Linux and Open Source by Martin Fink

An introduction to the open source community targeted at business managers, this book by Martin Fink offers members of the free software and business communities glimpses of each other’s world view. It also includes a lot of practical advice for businesses interested in cashing in on the success of free software.

An older book, but still very relevantAn older book, but still very relevant

Book review: Python How to Program by Deitel & Associates

Python How to Program is a textbook for a basic course in programming based on the increasingly popular programming language, Python.

Python How to Program is a very complete textbook for learning Python.Python How to Program is a very complete textbook for learning Python.

This book is truly a textbook, right down to the duotone red and black printing, which takes me back to my school days. I had expected it to be more of a self-study book as published by other technical publishers, but this book is clearly meant to be used in a classroom environment.

Book review: Wicked Cool Perl Scripts by Steve Oualline

Every GNU/Linux administrator will need to touch a Perl script or two at some point. Perl seems to be the scripting glue of choice since it has matured so well over the years. As a result, administrators can choose from many different Perl books. One such book is Wicked Perl Scripts by Steve Oualline and published by No Starch Press.

Wicked Perl Scripts coverWicked Perl Scripts cover

Book review: Unix Power Tools 3rd edition by Shelley Powers, Jerry Peek, Tim O’Reilly and Mike Loukides

Using a Unix system requires a lot of knowledge, and it’s common to see Unix users and administrators spending a lot of time reading handbooks, tutorials and man pages to find out the “right” sequence of keystrokes. In the publishing world there is a little pearl, a single source of information about Unix and how to use it: Unix Power Tools, published by O’Reilly and Associates. O’Reilly is a well known publisher of Unix books; in this one, you’ll see Tim O’Reilly himself as an author!

The cover of Unix Power Tools 3rd editionThe cover of Unix Power Tools 3rd edition

Book review: Computers & Typesetting Millennium Edition by Donald E. Knuth

Professor Donald E. Knuth doesn’t need an introduction: he created TeX (a powerful typesetting system) and METAFONT (a program to design fonts). He also designed a font family, called Computer Modern, which is the default choice of TeX.

The cover of Computers & Typesetting Millennium editionThe cover of Computers & Typesetting Millennium edition

Mr. Knuth is known to write sharp and enlightening books. His books about typesetting are no exception: he wrote five books dedicated to these topics, and Addison-Wesley now sells them all in one box, entitled “Computers & Typesetting Millennium edition”...

Book review: Regular Expression Recipes by Nathan A. Good

I’ll admit right up front that I am something of a regular expression junkie. Years before I even knew such a system existed (before the days of the internet) I wrote my own regular expression system to handle the needs of a free-text database management package. Today, we are all familiar with regular expressions in Perl, sed, awk/gawk and even in “user” applications like email and word processors...

The cover of Regular Expression RecipesThe cover of Regular Expression Recipes

Book review: Practical Subversion by Garrett Rooney

Version control is—or at least should be—a critical part of the development process. As Garrett Rooney explains right at the beginning of Practical Subversion (published by Apress), using version control can help you recover that file you accidentally deleted, or put your code base back into the position it was in, when it worked, before you introduced that latest bug.

Book review: Randal Schwartz’s Perls of Wisdom by Randal L Schwartz

Ask for some key figures in the world of Perl and it wont be long before the name Randal L Schwartz appears. Randal has, at one time or another, been a trainer of Perl, the Pumpking (responsible for managing the development of Perl), as well as a prolific writer and speaker on Perl techniques and materials. In Perls of Wisdom (Apress) he gathers together many of his talks and articles into a single book, expanding, correcting and extending them as necessary...

The cover of Randal Schwartz’s Perls of WisdomThe cover of Randal Schwartz’s Perls of Wisdom

Book review: Linux Server Security by Michael D Bauer

While developed and supported with the best of intentions, Linux is still based on a wide range of different applications and systems working together. From the free software perspective this is its power; many people working together to produce a top quality operating system.

The cover of Linux Server SecurityThe cover of Linux Server Security

Book review: Linux in a Windows World by Roderick Smith

Linux in Windows World aims to solve the problems experienced by many system administrators when it comes to using Linux servers (and to a lesser extent clients) within an existing Windows environment. Overall the book is meaty and a quick flick through shows an amazing amount of information has been crammed between the covers. There are though some immediately obvious omissions, given the books title and description, but I’m hoping this won’t detract from the rest of the content...

The cover of Linux in a Windows WorldThe cover of Linux in a Windows World

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