BOOKS: Advanced UNIX(TM) Programming

[Doug Gwyn <gwyn>]

> > Advanced UNIX (TM) Programming by Marc J. Rochkind.  Here's comprehensive,
> > practical advice on how and when to use - and not use system calls.  
> > 265 pp. $32.95.
> 
> Laura and I looked at this book at a friend's house and our opinion
> was that if you only want to write for System V, it might be OK.
> If you care about the larger Unix world, pass it up.  He seemed to
> have kind of the right attitude, but all the little details are
> wrong, and he totally ignores the non-att world.

Well, many of the programming errors I see 4.2BSD programmers make
would have been avoided if they had understood the information in
Marc's book.  Most of what he has to say applies to any brand of
UNIX, and he has brief discussions of other variants at the end of
most chapters.  For portability, one should be programming in what
amounts to a System V environment anyway, even on BSD systems.  If
you don't have a System V environment on your 4.2BSD system, it is
your own fault, since one is available for free.

I would be interesting in hearing what all the "little details" are
that are "wrong".  I didn't notice many errors.