Learning Unix for Mac OS X, by Dave Taylor and Jerry Peek
Published by O' Reilly Books, $19.95.
Reviewed by Francine Schwieder
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Learning Unix for Mac OS X, by Dave Taylor and Jerry PeekPublished by O' Reilly Books, $19.95. Reviewed by Francine Schwieder |
I'm afraid this book was a Grave Disappointment. I was eagerly waiting for it to appear, thinking that it would tell Mac users running OS X just how using the terminal and Unix commands would enable us to do things we can't do in the regular Aqua interface. It doesn't really do that. In fact it doesn't really do anything, not even provide a very good introduction to the terminal. The most that can be said for it is that it is cheap and easily held in one hand. But for an introduction to the terminal and how to use it I would advise you to look elsewhere, ditto for using Unix to enhance your operations in Aqua.
I'm afraid it is poorly written and not particularly helpful. I already know a little bit about using the terminal and a Unix shell because I have installed and configured several different flavors of Linux--Red Hat on an old 486 machine, MKLinux, Yellow Dog and LinuxPPC on two different Macs. So I'm not a complete novice, but still I was often unable to figure out what Taylor and Peek were attempting to tell me to do. Sometimes I would carefully follow the directions for doing something and it simply didn't work. Then there were many occasions where a paragraph would start out sounding promising, as if I was going to learn how to do something useful, only to peter out into nothing at all, with some comment about how you need to know more, but they aren't going to tell you. Why mention it at all?
In case you think I'm being unduly harsh, let me assure you I am not a lone voice on this one. I talked to one man who is a Unix novice, and he said he couldn't understand anything at all in the book. I also handed it to a Unix pro who looked through it and said it had very bad Unix style, and he would recommend against anyone attempting to use it.
So far the best introduction to using the terminal that I have found, if you are serious about actually doing something, is "Mac OS X Unleashed" by John Ray and William C. Ray. The bad news is that it is one of those 30 pound computer books that cost 50 bucks. O'Reilly does have a book out on Unix and the Mac that is excellent. The aforementioned Unix guru bought himself a copy and announced that it was the best book on Unix and OS X that he had seen and that it was extremely helpful. Of course he IS a Unix geek, so I guess it is no surprise that the "Mac OS X for Unix Geeks" by Brian Jepson and Ernest E. Rothman would really ring his bell. I have also read it, and thought it most excellent, even though some of it was a bit too advanced for me. I still got a lot of useful information out the book, and there was only one chapter where I didn't find something I could understand and use. I wonder if O'Reilly could convince Jepson and Rothman to write an introduction to Unix for general Mac users?
I'm beginning to think that the only way to get the book I want is to write it myself. The "Learning Unix" book has an appendix on configuring Sendmail, a notoriously complex piece of Unix programming (my Unix guru says the guys responsible for it are actually proud of how complicated the thing is), but skips explaining how to do basic shell scripting. The authors even say that Sendmail is incredibly complex and useful only to those who might want to use their Mac as a mail server. Shell scripting is useful to everyone who wants to use the terminal. So why an appendix on something notoriously difficult and not useful to most people, instead of one on a subject that would be widely useful and isn't that complicated? I plan to figure out how to write a shell script and take notes. It might be the beginning of a Unix for MacHeads book that will skip things you can do with Aqua and normal Mac programs, and include basic instructions for Unixey things we would actually be able to use. I had hoped that was what this O'Reilly book would be, and am sorry to have to report that it isn't.