Date: Sat, 17 May 2003 01:35:28 -0600 From: Tom <tsasser@terra.cl> To: freebsd-newbies@freebsd.org Subject: learning on our own Message-ID: <200305170135.28855.tsasser@terra.cl>
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hi all, i just read the FreeBSD Newbies FAK again. something came to mind about a book that i have been reading. there is a book called _Understanding Unix/Linux Programming: A Guide to Theory and Practice_. it was written by Bruce Molay. it covers unix system programming from the beginning system programmer's perspective. generally, a book like this is not for newbies. it does require that you have some experience with the c programming language. so, why do i mention this? this book is absolutely BEAUTIFUL for learning the Unix Way. it introduces basic system programming concepts by showing the reader how to write common unix programs like ls. in my opinion, understanding the building blocks of unix is essential for understanding how to get unix to behave in a way that you like. what i find so neat about the book is that it teaches you how to ask questions of unix...and get the answers. you literally learn how to research a problem with this book. it divides up the problems up as follows: 1) "what does the unix program do?" ( like ls ), 2) "how does the program ls do it?" and 3) "can i write ls?" this is great because he shows you how to investigate the problem and find the answer on the system--usually through reading the online manuals and observing the behavior of the program. remember, computers are dumber than blades of grass! but, if programmed properly, they will tell you what they want. so, if you are seeing an error on the screen, it's really telling you what it wanted ( but it may look like gibberish ). it's up to you to reseach the "gibberish" in order to solve the problem. that means you actually have to read the error ( sometimes even save it )...because there may be keywords in the error that you can use in your search. needless to say, being able to investigate a problem and build your own answer is essential in unix...regardless of the problem...from web servers to configuring a boot loader. as i go through the book and look at the problems, i go through this procedure...and i learn more about what goes on behind the scenes. reading the online help ( man-pages ) is humbling, but you really start to get a feel for how unix works. i HIGHLY recommend that most newbies at least read the first several chapters. you will become familiar with the paradigm. skip the code if you have to; you can also just read the program comments. the goal is to understand how to research a problem, not necessarily code in c. molay puts lots of comments in the code, so you won't get lost. i cannot stress this point enough: if you use the problem solving techniques shown in this book, you can solve any problem that you come across on your bsd system. good luck and happy hacking! --tom GAIM: cREbralFIX yahoo messenger: cREbralFIX www.linuxtechies.org ( yes, one of them! )
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