Wanted: intro to Unix for people with DOS experience

[Prentiss Riddle]

You'll recall that I asked a couple of weeks back if anyone could point
me to any introductory material on Unix for users with DOS experience. 
I'm absolutely astonished to say that there doesn't appear to be much
out there, judging by the responses I got.  If any of you are budding
authors, this may be your chance -- there's certainly a market for
something on this topic.

Here are the highlights of the responses I did receive.  Only one, the
appendix to a book on Unix, was quite what I had in mind. 

--- Prentiss Riddle ("Aprendiz de todo, maestro de nada.")
--- Opinions expressed are not necessarily those of Shriners Burns Institute.
--- riddle at woton.UUCP  {ihnp4,harvard}!ut-sally!im4u!woton!riddle

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>From: im4u!rutgers!moss!pegasus!hansen
Subject: Re: Wanted: intro to Unix for people with DOS experience

Just published by Kaare Christian is the book "UNIX Command Reference
Guide" (John Wiley & Sons, 1988, ISBN 0-471-85580-4).  It contains an
appendix which seems to fit your bill exactly: "UNIX for MS-DOS
Users". 

Tony Hansen   ihnp4!pegasus!hansen, attmail!tony

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>From: im4u!rutgers!cs-gw.d.umn.edu!umn-cs!hall!anne (Anne Chenette)
Subject: Re: Wanted: intro to Unix for people with DOS experience

I just ran across a book yesterday that includes overviews of several
operating systems.  I'm sure it wasn't designed to give DOS users an
introduction to UNIX, but the writer seems to be approaching things
from a MS-DOS/RT11 viewpoint.  Parts of it may be useful, but take it
all with a grain of salt.  The man writes badly, and even I have found
a number of errors and half-truths in the few sections that I have
read.  (I'm reading the section on UNIX internals in hopes that I'll
pick up something useful.)

The book is:
                Operating Systems: A Systematic View
                William S. Davis
                Addison-Wesley, 1987
                ISBN 0-201-11185-3

Chapter 9 discusses UNIX, and Appendix C has a summary of some
useful UNIX commands.

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>From: unicom!daniel (Dan "I want to Ski Tam!" Smith)
Subject: Re: Wanted: intro to Unix for people with DOS experience

Hi - being a person who spends all day with Unix, and some time with
PC's and Macs, I would suggest "The Csh Field Guide" as an excellent
intorduction to using unix/csh.  I don't have it in front of me (my
fiance keeps stealing it :-), but I believe it is put out by
Prentice-Hall.  It's a white cover with a Seashell on it.  Very well
written. 

dan smith, island graphics, marin co., ca  | "My opinions: you can borrow them,
uucp: ..!ucbvax!ucbcad!island!daniel       |  but don't take them out bowling"
uucp: ..!ptsfa!unicom!daniel !well!daniels |  (415) 892 TANK (h) 491 1000 (w)

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>From: uunet!ora!jill
Subject: Nutshell Handbooks

[Someone forwarded me Jill's entire brochure on nutshell handbooks. 
This is the main one that seems to have to do with the Unix-vs.-DOS
question.  -- Prentiss]

DOS Meets UNIX							  NEW!
by Dale	Dougherty

Are these two great operating systems on a collision  course?	Or  is
there a	way to get the best of both?  This new handbook	gives an over-
view of	the new	products that make it possible for  DOC	 and  UNIX  to
work  together:	  PC interface and DOS/UNIX merge from Locus Computing
Corp., Sun's PC-NFS, and Interactive Systems' VP-IX.  This  book  will
help  you  to evaluate if these	products are for you, and if so, where
to get them and	how to put them	to work.

     ISBN: 0-937175-21-8    approx. 70 pages   $12.50 [plus P&H]

Books may be ordered through e-mail, direct mail, or over the telephone
(1-800-338-NUTS).  If you are paying by credit card, please include the
type of card, the account number, and the expiration date. 

Jill Berlin (617) 527-4210
O'Reilly & Associates, Inc., Publishers of Nutshell Handbooks
981 Chestnut Street, Newton, MA 02164
UUCP:	uunet!ora!jill      ARPA:   jill at ora.uu.net

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>From: im4u!ut-sally!nather (Ed Nather)
Subject: Re: Wanted: intro to Unix for people with DOS experience

This is not directly responsive to your query, but might be of interest
anyway. 

When I first started working with MS-DOS I was used to Unix (4.1bsd)
and found the many small differences confusing, particularly since I
had to go back and forth between the two systems.  "\" vs "/" drove me
crazy. 

To avoid brain damage, I put together a package I call PCnix, which
runs on PCs and clones and makes them look very much like Unix.  It
still uses MS-DOS so it retains speed, but the user's interface looks
much like Unix.  It has all of the Unix commands I found useful, plus a
few MS-DOS-specific ones.  I've written it up as a chapter in a
forthcoming book "The MS-DOS Papers" due out some time this year, from
the Waite Group. 

I consider all of it public domain, and would be happy to send it to
you (or e-mail you a copy of the chapter) if you would be interested. 

Ed Nather   nather at sally.utexas.edu   {ihnp4,harvard}!ut-sally!nather