Books: A User's Report
Elizabeth Zinkann
The books in this column present an unusual assortment. It was a
pleasure to read and review the latest book by Kernighan and Pike,
a new edition of a small and complete Internet Guide, a networking
troubleshooting how-to book, and a CD-ROM package for UNIX.
Specifically, I read and reviewed The Practice of
Programming by Brian W. Kernighan and Rob Pike (The
Addison-Wesley Professional Computing Series, Addison-Wesley);
The Internet: The Rough Guide 1999 by Angus J. Kennedy (Rough
Guides Ltd., Distributed by The Penguin Group); SAMS Teach
Yourself Network Troubleshooting in 24 Hours by Jonathan
Feldman (SAMS Publishing); and The UNIX CD Bookshelf: 6
Bestselling Books on CD-ROM (O'Reilly & Associates, Inc.).
I hope that you enjoy the books and the reviews.
The Practice of Programming
By Brian W. Kernighan and Rob Pike
The Addison-Wesley Professional Computing Series
Addison-Wesley
ISBN 0-201-61586-X
267 Pages
$24.95
http://tpop.awl.com
One of the fundamental references for writing well is "The
Elements of Style" by William Strunk, Jr. and E. B. White. The
original "little" book presents the essentials of good writing
principles positively, clearly, and precisely in a compact volume.
(My well-worn copy ends on page 78.) Brian W. Kernighan and P. J.
Plauger later adapted Strunk and White's format for The Elements
of Programming Style. Kernighan and Plauger also extended the
concepts of good writing to include the techniques of good
programming, utilizing examples in Fortran and PL/I. With the
release of The Practice of Programming, Kernighan and Pike
(authors of the superb classic, The UNIX Programming
Environment) examine the features of program design,
implementation, and the attributes that distinguish excellent from
mediocre programming.
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