BKUNXHTR.RVW  940909

"The UNIX-Haters Handbook", Garfinkel/Weise/Strassmann, 1994, 1-56884-203-1,
U$16.95/C$22.95
simsong@prose.cambridge.ma.us daniel@ai.ai.mit.edu daniel@quilty.stanford.edu
straz@apple.com straz@media.mit.edu
%A   Simson Garfinkel
%A   Daniel Weise
%A   Steven Strassman
%C   155 Bovet Road, Suite 310, San Mateo, CA   94402
%D   1994
%G   1-56884-203-1
%I   International Data Group (IDG Books)
%O   U$16.95/C$22.95
%P   370
%T   "The UNIX-Haters Handbook"
415-312-0650
fax: 415-286-2740
mkoloski@mcimail.com, 5099539@mcimail.com, kaday@aol.com

Given the current book market, with titles and series such as " ___ for the
Terminally Besotted," and "I Loathe and Despise ___," the casual browser could
be forgiven for thinking this was an introductory, albeit sarcastic, guide to
UNIX.  It isn't.  UNIX-HATERS is an electronic discussion list for frustrated
UNIX users to sound off about their latest disaster.  Properly understood, the
title is highly accurate:  this is a compilation of the best of UNIX-HATERS
postings, organized and with a supporting structure.

It's funny, in both senses of the word.  The book contains a lot of very
humorous material.  Much of it would be more amusing to the technically
literate, but the narrative framework provides good explanations.  The
contemptuous and even vitriolic tone, however, gives the reader a feeling of
tension and unease.

For those familiar with UNIX, the book could provide some very handy tips,
though primarily for various shells rather than the OS itself.  It forms a kind
of easter egg hunt for UNIX bugs and foibles; a bad-tempered "insider's guide"
or "Undocumented UNIX".  (One of the running themes is the inadequacy of UNIX
documentation.)

Dennis Ritchie wrote an "Anti-Foreword" for the book, in which he states that
the authors "claim to seek progress, but ... succeed mainly in whining."  This
is a precise description of the book.  The work could not be used for further
OS development:  the complaints point out not design flaws, but bugs in the
implementation of an experimental system with distributed authorship; a
commercial foster-child whose copyright has become an embarrassment.

copyright Robert M. Slade, 1994   BKUNXHTR.RVW  940909
 
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