Unix in a Nutshell, 4th Edition

Programming with the Unix Mindset

Any book written by Brian Kernighan deserves careful reading, usually several times. The first two books present the Unix “toolbox” programming methodology. They will help you learn how to “think Unix.” The third book continues the process, with a more explicit Unix focus. The fourth and fifth are about programming in general, and also very worthwhile.

1. Software Tools, Brian W. Kernighan and P. J. Plauger. Addison-Wesley, Reading, MA, USA, 1976. ISBN 0-201-03669-X.

   A wonderful book^[2] that presents the design and code for programs equivalent to Unix’s grep, sort, ed, and others. The programs use RATFOR (Rational FORTRAN), a preprocessor for FORTRAN with C-like control structures.

2. Software Tools in Pascal, Brian W. Kernighan and P. J. Plauger. Addison-Wesley, Reading, MA, USA, 1981. ISBN 0-201-10342-7.

   A translation of the previous book into Pascal. Still worth reading; Pascal provides many things that FORTRAN does not.

3. The Unix Programming Environment, Brian W. Kernighan and Rob Pike. Prentice Hall, Englewood Cliffs, NJ, USA, 1984. ISBN 0-13-937699-2 (hardcover), 0-13-937681-X (paperback).

   This books focuses explicitly on Unix, using the tools in that environment. In particular, it adds important material on the shell, awk, and the use of lex and yacc. See http://cm.bell-labs.com/cm/cs/upe.

4. The Elements of Programming Style, Second Edition, Brian W. Kernighan and P. J. Plauger. McGraw-Hill, New York, NY, USA, 1978. ISBN 0-07-034207-5.

   Modeled after Strunk ...