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Harley Hahn's Student Guide To Unix
With its easy-to-read, coaching style and well-designed plan, A Student's Guide to Unix, 2/e is the best way to introduce students to the complex world of Unix. This edition is a comprehensive revision of the first Unix textbook specifically developed for the university environment. Designed to be a reference and an educational resource, the book describes all the basic skills involved, as well as countless tips, hints and techniques. This edition includes chapters on the Emacs editor, Job Control and the Korn Shell. It has also been improved as a reference text.
- GenresReferenceProgramming
746 pages, Paperback
First published May 1, 1996
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
January 18, 2020
Unix is both an operating system and a way of life according to this guide. While I have played around with Linux before, I dropped it since I wasn’t able to do everything I wanted to do on it. It was on a system that had two operating systems on it, and I could boot to either system. The problem was that I wasn’t able to access the sectors of the disc that were under Windows. I think that was what happened, but I don’t remember exactly why I stopped using it.
The book is called Harvey Hahn’s Student Guide to Unix and the author assumes that you have absolutely no knowledge whatsoever of computers. This is fine since the book was written when computers were more typewriter than computer. Most commands were typed and the GUI or Graphical User Interface was somewhat new. This book does a great job of describing how to run a system with Unix. It defines Unix, talks about its history and development, and attempts to counter the hubris of a new user. Unix is a vast subject, and most people don’t know anything about Unix. The author asserts that it is impossible to know everything there is to know about Unix.
Anyway, this book is pretty old. Initially released in 1993, I have the second edition which was released in 1996. It comes across as somewhat charming; the author writes about talking to Unix experts in different countries as though it is a novel thing. I suppose it was at the time, so I need to take it in context. I mean, now with various programs and apps it is mundane and common to talk to someone in Great Britain when you live in the United States. Since the book came out in 1996, they have “High-Speed Internet,” which is probably 56K over a telephone line. I remember those days with the dial-up modem that had to call your ISP over the phone line. I do not miss those days.
The book is a guide through Unix as it mentions in the title. It talks about different commands and how to interface with the computer through the terminal. A lot of the most common commands are explored and explained. The book is organized into chapters with each chapter discussing a major subject. For example, there is a section that discusses the different games available on Unix. This was interesting since I usually associate Unix with pure business and scholarly work. I had heard of games in the age of PDP-1 and those behemoths, but I never played any of them or saw the computers as they were at that time.
Even though the book is old, I don’t think it is totally obsolete. It works as an interesting point of reference, and it gives you the basis of syntax and so on. The author explains things in a clear manner and obviously is very passionate about this particular subject.
The book is called Harvey Hahn’s Student Guide to Unix and the author assumes that you have absolutely no knowledge whatsoever of computers. This is fine since the book was written when computers were more typewriter than computer. Most commands were typed and the GUI or Graphical User Interface was somewhat new. This book does a great job of describing how to run a system with Unix. It defines Unix, talks about its history and development, and attempts to counter the hubris of a new user. Unix is a vast subject, and most people don’t know anything about Unix. The author asserts that it is impossible to know everything there is to know about Unix.
Anyway, this book is pretty old. Initially released in 1993, I have the second edition which was released in 1996. It comes across as somewhat charming; the author writes about talking to Unix experts in different countries as though it is a novel thing. I suppose it was at the time, so I need to take it in context. I mean, now with various programs and apps it is mundane and common to talk to someone in Great Britain when you live in the United States. Since the book came out in 1996, they have “High-Speed Internet,” which is probably 56K over a telephone line. I remember those days with the dial-up modem that had to call your ISP over the phone line. I do not miss those days.
The book is a guide through Unix as it mentions in the title. It talks about different commands and how to interface with the computer through the terminal. A lot of the most common commands are explored and explained. The book is organized into chapters with each chapter discussing a major subject. For example, there is a section that discusses the different games available on Unix. This was interesting since I usually associate Unix with pure business and scholarly work. I had heard of games in the age of PDP-1 and those behemoths, but I never played any of them or saw the computers as they were at that time.
Even though the book is old, I don’t think it is totally obsolete. It works as an interesting point of reference, and it gives you the basis of syntax and so on. The author explains things in a clear manner and obviously is very passionate about this particular subject.
January 8, 2013
I love Hahn's style.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews