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Reviews (22)

Doesn't cover everything, but I've been using Emacs for 3 years and learned a lot here
LEARNING GNU EMACS is an introduction to the most powerful text editor ever made, a fully-programmable environment that through contributions from thousands has become something of an operating system in itself. This third edition covers all the new enhancements made in version 21.3.
Respects the intellect of one motivated enough to learn Emacs and enables mastery of the tool
If a person is thinking of learning A Professional Book for Professional Programmers
Most of the Unix/Linux senior level Wizzards that I know use Emacs and swear by it. There are others (vi users especially) who swear at it, but that's another story. Emacs is a huge package and is growing bigger. Although you can consider it a text editor, it's a big, massive package that does a lot more than just edit text.
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Subjects:  1. Computer Books: Word Processing    2. Computers    3. Computers - Languages / Programming    4. Microcomputer Text Processing Software    5. Operating Systems - UNIX    6. Programming - General    7. Programming Languages - General    8. Unix (Operating System)    9. Word Processing - General    10. Computer Software Packages    11. Computers / General    12. Computers / Languages / Programming    13. Computers / Programming / General    14. Computers/Programming Languages - General    15. Learning GNU Emacs, Emacs, GNU, Unix, Linux, buffers, email, newsreaders, telnet, ssh, FTP, macros, text formatting, text editors, markup languages, compiling, debugging, variables, LISP, version control     16. Text & document processing: general    17. Text editors (Computer programs)   

Editorial Review

It may be foolish to consider Eric Raymond's recent collection of essays, Read more

Reviews (41)

Amazing!!!
I'm enjoying this book very, very much!!!
ESR Helps the Intermediate Software Developer Understand His Environment
This is my second experience with ESR's books, and I've been very pleased with both of them.Looking at software development from his "anthropologist" perspective, has proven extremely helpful in better understanding my experiences in the industry, and especially in seeing things about people and processes that I didn't realize were there until he'd pointed them out.I don't think this would have made much sense to me if I was new to the software development environment, but now that I've been in it for several years and experienced different people and different groups with their own different processes, ESR's conceptual insights have helped me evaluate my own way of working and thinking.I highly recommend this book to anyone who's been in software development for at least three years... I think your own experience is very important to have behind you when reading ESR's books.This kind of reading led me to the Fred Brook classic "The Mythical Man-Month", which I think is still full of applicable insights (a whopping 30 years after it was first published).

For those who question why open source makes sense
Eric Raymond presents a coherent and well-supported case that explains why open source makes commercial sense. Putting aside the "religious" fervor of some of his arguments, the logic on why the open source movement can spawn successful businesses is irrefutable. Read it and you will understand why traditional (proprietary) software business models have become a dying breed. I would rate the book a "5" but for some parts where the text becomes somewhat convoluted and repetitive. Overall, a must-read for anyone involved in software development. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Computer Books: Languages    2. Computer operating systems    3. Computers    4. Computers - Operating Systems    5. Linux    6. Natural Language Processing    7. Open source software    8. Operating Systems - Linux    9. Software engineering    10. Computers / Operating Systems    11. Computers / Operating Systems / Linux    12. Computers / Social Aspects / Human-Computer Interaction    13. Unix, Unix Linux & Unix TCL/TK   

Editorial Review

Unix ranks among the great engineering accomplishments of the last half of the twentieth century, and its heir--Linux--seems already imposing and still on its way to achieving its full potential. Eric S. Raymond argues in Read more

Reviews (31)

Changed the Way I Designed My Own Software Development
Learning what this book had to teach was a pivotal point in my software development career... it was the first time I came to an awareness of looking at HOW the design and development process occurred in my job, and really thinking about WHY we did certain things the way we did.My own development methods changed drastically after reading this book, and my own visible changes have had an impact on those that work with me (i.e. it got them thinking as well about how they did their development).ESR's book spent a fair amount of time in the details of some specific software, but those parts came across to me as examples backing up earlier points he had made rather being "I recommend using this software" endorsements.I've learned from ESR's writings that there's almost always an upper-level awareness to be discovered, whether he's explicitly making a point to back up something he's saying, or whether it's something implicit that steers your own thinking towards something he's said.I highly recommend this book to anyone who's been doing software development (especially in a group environment and steered/constrained by that group's processes) for at least a year, perhaps two.If you've been doing this kind of work for more than two years, and never thought deeply at WHY you design your software creations the WAY you do, it's time for you to pick up this book and see what you can glean from it.

Surpassed my expectations
When I first started reading this book, I expected to hear a considerable amount of Microsoft trashing and everything else that follows from fanatical Microsoft haters. However, what I found was an easy to follow book that illustrates many aspects of Unix programming, explains why they work, and shows examples of all of them.
Where is the beef?
I join the other reviewer who complained about the book having no code at all.
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Subjects:  1. Computer Books: General    2. Computers    3. Computers - Languages / Programming    4. Operating Systems - UNIX    5. Operating systems (Computers)    6. Programming Languages - General    7. UNIX (Computer file)    8. Unix (Operating System)    9. Computers / Operating Systems / UNIX    10. Unix, Unix Linux & Unix TCL/TK   

Editorial Review

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Reviews (21)

Intresting mainly to see the differeces among the authors...
This book is an interesting window on the Open Source world. It is a strange planet with strange people. Some crazy idealist like R. Stallman (I like the guy very much), some smart and intelligent person like L. Torvald (he did a very good job with Linux). In between someone that was just in the right place at the right time, but who doesn't deserve so much space and celebrity. I am talking about a person that seems confused as the language he invented: Larry Wall. His contribution does not require further comments.

good document - articles a mixed bag (naturally)
This is a good idea on O'Reilly's part to try to document the history and goals of the Open Source movement, which had roots in several college campuses and research labs in the '70s and '80s, and became news in the late '90s with the popularity of Linux, Apache, and the decision of Netscape to open its browser source. The best introductory piece, however, is probably Eric Raymond's "Cathedral and the Bazaar" which is not in this book(O'Reilly publishes it separately, but it's available free on the Web and short enough to be read in one sitting).As for this collection, I liked Robert Young's business case for distributing open source - his story of how Red Hat was launched reminds me of the Compaq tale of "three guys in a restaurant".The Apache article is also quite good, and Linus Torvalds offers a brief but interesting (and characteristically opinionated) article about how Linux evolved technically.There's also a good article discussing the various open source licenses (BSD, GPL, Netscape, etc) and what they do and don't restrict. A fascinating read
All the essays are well written, enjoyable, informative and a great read. Anyone interested in open source software, where S/W development might be going and Unix/Linux/GNU software in particular, should read this book. One or two essays showing their age, but still worth every penny. Buy it, read it, then encourage your friends to read it as well. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Computer Books: General    2. Computer programming    3. Computers    4. Computers - Languages / Programming    5. Free computer software    6. Programming - Software Development    7. Software Development    8. Software engineering    9. Computer Software Packages    10. Computers / Languages / Programming    11. Computers / Programming / Software Development    12. Computers / Social Aspects / Human-Computer Interaction    13. Information technology industries    14. Open source software    15. Programming languages    16. Software   

Reviews (3)

Suspicious reader
No points, no correctness, no validation, no value! Open source software as seen by an "independent" third party
"Understanding Open Source Software Development" (UOSSD) is the perfect introduction to OSS for those outside the community.The book takes a fairly balanced look at the people and processes which define the open source movement.Although some aspects of the book have grown stale over the last three years, I still recommend UOSSD to those desiring a deeper look at the open source phenomenon. Balanced and business-focused
This may be the perfect book about open source software because it places open source within the context of business value and does not promote it as the great panacea that characterize the message of far too many books on the subject.Read more

Subjects:  1. Computer Books: General    2. Computer software    3. Computers    4. Computers - Languages / Programming    5. Development    6. Open source software    7. Operating Systems - UNIX    8. Programming - Software Development    9. Software Development    10. Computers / Operating Systems / Linux    11. Software engineering   

Editorial Review

This third edition of the tremendously popular Hacker's Dictionary adds 100 new entries and updates 200 entries. In case you aren't familiar with it, this is no snoozer dictionary of technical terms, although you'll certainly find accurate definitions for most techie jargon. It's the slang and secret language among computer jocks that offers the most fun. Don't know what the Infinite-Monkey Theorem is? Or the meaning of "rat dance?" It's all here. Most people don't sit down to read dictionaries for entertainment, but this is surely an exception. ... Read more

Reviews (29)

Understand Your Fellow Hackers
"The New Hacker's Dictionary" is not an ordinary dictionary.Instead of a regular English dictionary, you get one that is the hacker's dream: a dictionary full of terms used by hackers all over the globe. Then you can really talk with your fellow geeks. A Slice Of Hacker History Hidden Inside A Dictionary
This isn't a dictionary, it's a thousand slices of hacker history, folklore, and culture aranged in alphabetical order.I've kept this book by my desk for the past decade and I still turn to it for a refreshing mind-spritz when the code is starting to look blurry...

A must-have for wanabees and the curious alike
This is one of my favorites: both informative and highly entertaining (perhaps more the latter).Read more

Subjects:  1. Computer Books: General    2. Computer Science    3. Computers    4. Computers - General Information    5. Dictionaries    6. Electronic data processing    7. Humor    8. Machine Theory    9. Reference - Dictionaries    10. Slang    11. Terminology    12. Computers / Computer Science    13. Data security & data encryption    14. Reference works   

Editorial Review

True enough, you can get the contents of this book on the Web from the Linux Document Pages site. Still, administrators of Linux systems (particularly networks of Linux machines) will appreciate having this printed edition on hand for easy reference. The authors of Linux and its suite of utilities have done a remarkably good job of documenting their work, and the two white papers bound in Read more

Reviews (1)

Worth the money
Great material, especially for administrators who are fairly new to Linux (and, let's face it, there are a lot of us out there).You can get the material online, but the book is great as a reference manual while you'reat a terminal session. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Computer Bks - Operating Systems    2. Computer Books: Operating Systems    3. Computer Operating Systems    4. Computer Systems    5. Computers    6. Computers - Operating Systems    7. Linux    8. Operating Systems - General    9. Operating Systems - Linux    10. Operating systems (Computers)    11. Reference - General    12. Unix, Unix Linux & Unix TCL/TK   

Subjects:  1. Computer Bks - Operating Systems    2. Computer Books: Operating Systems    3. Computers    4. Operating Systems - General    5. Operating Systems - Linux   

Reviews (1)

Portable Linux Documentation Project for bathroom reading.
This book is pretty much a snapshot of the Linux Documentation Project's documentation. There are some very good chapters in this book, but unfortunately some of them are woefully incomplete, and should not have been included. Understand that all the material in this book is freely available on the net. If you value your printer, and don't mind shelling out some money for a bound tree-ware version, this is a very good book. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Computer Bks - Languages / Programming    2. Computer Books: General    3. Computers    4. Computers - Languages / Programming    5. Linux    6. Operating Systems - General    7. Operating Systems - Linux    8. Operating systems (Computers)    9. Programming - Software Development    10. Computer Programming    11. Unix, Unix Linux & Unix TCL/TK