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>
next in thread | raw e-mail | index | archive | help
hi all, i just read the FreeBSD Newbies FAK again. something came to mind about a= book=20 that i have been reading. there is a book called _Understanding Unix/Linux Programming: A Guide to= =20 Theory and Practice_. it was written by Bruce Molay. it covers unix sys= tem=20 programming from the beginning system programmer's perspective. generally, a book like this is not for newbies. it does require that you= have=20 some experience with the c programming language. so, why do i mention th= is? =20 this book is absolutely BEAUTIFUL for learning the Unix Way. it introduc= es=20 basic system programming concepts by showing the reader how to write comm= on=20 unix programs like ls. in my opinion, understanding the building blocks = of=20 unix is essential for understanding how to get unix to behave in a way th= at=20 you like. what i find so neat about the book is that it teaches you how to ask ques= tions=20 of unix...and get the answers. you literally learn how to research a pro= blem=20 with this book. it divides up the problems up as follows: 1) "what does= the=20 unix program do?" ( like ls ), 2) "how does the program ls do it?" and 3= )=20 "can i write ls?" this is great because he shows you how to investigate = the=20 problem and find the answer on the system--usually through reading the on= line=20 manuals and observing the behavior of the program. remember, computers are dumber than blades of grass! but, if programmed=20 properly, they will tell you what they want. so, if you are seeing an er= ror=20 on the screen, it's really telling you what it wanted ( but it may look l= ike=20 gibberish ). it's up to you to reseach the "gibberish" in order to solve= the=20 problem. that means you actually have to read the error ( sometimes even= =20 save it )...because there may be keywords in the error that you can use i= n=20 your search. needless to say, being able to investigate a problem and build your own a= nswer=20 is essential in unix...regardless of the problem...from web servers to=20 configuring a boot loader. as i go through the book and look at the=20 problems, i go through this procedure...and i learn more about what goes = on=20 behind the scenes. reading the online help ( man-pages ) is humbling, bu= t=20 you really start to get a feel for how unix works. i HIGHLY recommend that most newbies at least read the first several chap= ters. =20 you will become familiar with the paradigm. skip the code if you have to= ; =20 you can also just read the program comments. the goal is to understand h= ow=20 to research a problem, not necessarily code in c. molay puts lots of=20 comments in the code, so you won't get lost. i cannot stress this point enough: if you use the problem solving techni= ques=20 shown in this book, you can solve any problem that you come across on you= r=20 bsd system. good luck and happy hacking! --tom GAIM: cREbralFIX yahoo messenger: cREbralFIX www.linuxtechies.org ( yes, one of them! ) =20
Want to link to this message? Use this URL: <https://mail-archive.FreeBSD.org/cgi/mid.cgi?200305170135.28855.tsasser>