Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!husc6!bu-cs!bucsb!eap
From: eap@bucsb.UUCP (Eric Pearce)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.wizards
Subject: Re: Howard Sams/Hayden Books UNIX Library
Message-ID: <1349@bucsb.UUCP>
Date: 19 Dec 87 22:10:46 GMT
References: <3947@uwmcsd1.UUCP>
Reply-To: eap@bucsb.UUCP (Eric Pearce)
Distribution: na
Organization: BD&HR (Beer Drinkers & Hell Raisers)
Lines: 35

In article <3947@uwmcsd1.UUCP> jgd@csd4.milw.wisc.edu.UUCP (John G Dobnick) writes:
>References:
>Just got this blurb (and order form) for 
>	Howard W. Sams & Company
>	      Hayden Books
>		UNIX & C
>		Libraries
>Any comments on the quality/usefulness of this series?

I bought "UNIX System Security" a while ago for an outrageous price.
I finally got around to reading it and was rather disappointed by
the amount of new material I learned from reading it.  It spends a long
time on set-uid hazards, but most of this you can find out on your
own.  I felt I would have encountered and been able to handle most of
the issues raised just by programming in the UNIX enviroment for a
while, instead of paying for $40 the book.  

As for the other books in the series, I have looked at a few (I do not
know the specific titles).  They looked better, but suffer the same
lack of detail that most of the UNIX books have that I have seen.  They are
still talking about options to the 'ls' command about 80% through the
book, instead of the juicy details on how to do some low-level function. 
I have found this to be true even in books claiming to be "advanced" UNIX.

The different versions of UNIX (SYSV vs BSD) certainly differ on the
details, but I do not think this is a reason to skip them.  I have not
seen a decent book yet that explains "this is how to do it on SYSV"
and "this is how to do it on BSD".  They tend to generalize instead.

The other books put out by Sams (on electronics, for example) are
usually very good. 

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