Unix Programming - Refreshing Skills : Stevens book 1st edition vs 2nd edition

Author

Refreshing Skills : Stevens book 1st edition vs 2nd edition

Matthew

2006-03-19, 6:58 pm

Hi:

I have started to refresh my UNIX programming skills. I have the book
Advanced Programming in the UNIX Environment by W. Richard Stevens ,
first edition. I have noticed that there is a second edition out
there. From browsing the table of contents, the major updates are some
new chapters on threading and network printing.

Would I be wasting my time looking at the first edition for chapters
that do not seem to have changed?

Thank You

Matthew

Joe Georger

2006-03-21, 7:57 am

Matthew wrote:
> Hi:
>
> I have started to refresh my UNIX programming skills. I have the book
> Advanced Programming in the UNIX Environment by W. Richard Stevens ,
> first edition. I have noticed that there is a second edition out
> there. From browsing the table of contents, the major updates are some
> new chapters on threading and network printing.
>
> Would I be wasting my time looking at the first edition for chapters
> that do not seem to have changed?
>
> Thank You
>
> Matthew
>
It would not be a waste of your time. I have both editions and while I
haven't read the 2nd one too closely, what it does have in addition to
the extra/replaced chapters is an updated platform/os support list for
many of the functions. However even in the 2nd edition his linux
testbed is 2.4.22. I think just about all the basics are the same.

One thing that is lacking is that most, if not all the IPC covered in
the book is still Sys V. I myself prefer Posix IPC - which is covered
in the Steven's UNIX Network Programming Vol 2. I thought it might have
made it into this edition since I think it's gained in popularity.

Joe

Thomas Dickey

2006-03-23, 7:04 pm

Joe Georger <jgeorger@ll.mit.edu> wrote:
> It would not be a waste of your time. I have both editions and while I
> haven't read the 2nd one too closely, what it does have in addition to
> the extra/replaced chapters is an updated platform/os support list for
> many of the functions. However even in the 2nd edition his linux
> testbed is 2.4.22. I think just about all the basics are the same.

Linux 2.4.22 is reasonably stable, widely-used and appropriate, given
the timeframe within which the book was updated - compare with Solaris 9
which fit the same measure. Ditto FreeBSD 5.2.1 - the one disparity
seems to be Darwin 7.4.0, which iirc is some months older than the other
three.

--
Thomas E. Dickey
http://invisible-island.net
ftp://invisible-island.net

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