BKUNXMDE.RVW   960313
 
"UNIX Made Easy", John Muster, 1996, 0-07-882173-8, U$34.95
%A   John Muster
%C   2600 Tenth St., Berkeley, CA   94710
%D   1996
%G   0-07-882173-8
%I   McGraw-Hill Ryerson/Osborne
%O   U$34.95 905-430-5000 fax: 905-430-5020 510-548-2805 800-227-0900
%P   1061
%T   "UNIX Made Easy"
 
I am not sure that this is the easiest book on UNIX that I have reviewed.  But,
in spite of its size, it is definitely the fastest.
 
Muster's style is a bit uneven, but it tends towards field independence,
concentrating on punching keys and trying things out.  This doesn't always do
well at explaining what is going on, or suggesting uses for many of the
utilities.  His choice and organization of functions and features is very well
thought out, though, and runs the reader very quickly past the most needed and
commonly used tasks.  The review of regular expressions is possibly the best
I've ever seen.
 
Muster attempts to cover all shells and UNIX versions simultaneously.  This
means that the average user will be coming back to the book frequently; not
always for the right reasons.  (And don't expect to be able to find things
where the index says they are.)  However, it does mean that, regardless of the
system you use, you can probably get up and running with this book.
 
copyright Robert M. Slade, 1996   BKUNXMDE.RVW   960313

======================
DECUS Canada Communications, Desktop, Education and Security group newsletters
Editor/reviewer   ROBERTS@decus.ca   rslade@vanisl.decus.ca   rslade@vcn.bc.ca
                  DECUS Canada WWW site - http://www.decus.ca