''The Art of Unix Programming'' by
Eric S. Raymond
Eric Steven Raymond (born December 4, 1957), often referred to as ESR, is an American software developer, open-source software advocate, and author of the 1997 essay and 1999 book ''The Cathedral and the Bazaar''. He wrote a guidebook for the ...
is a book about the history and culture of
Unix
Unix (; trademarked as UNIX) is a family of multitasking, multiuser computer operating systems that derive from the original AT&T Unix, whose development started in 1969 at the Bell Labs research center by Ken Thompson, Dennis Ritchie, ...
programming from its earliest days in 1969 to 2003 when it was published, covering both genetic derivations such as
BSD and conceptual ones such as
Linux
Linux ( or ) is a family of open-source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991, by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged as a Linux distribution, whi ...
.
The author utilizes a comparative approach to explaining Unix by contrasting it to other
operating system
An operating system (OS) is system software that manages computer hardware, software resources, and provides common daemon (computing), services for computer programs.
Time-sharing operating systems scheduler (computing), schedule tasks for ef ...
s including desktop-oriented ones such as
Microsoft Windows
Windows is a group of several proprietary graphical operating system families developed and marketed by Microsoft. Each family caters to a certain sector of the computing industry. For example, Windows NT for consumers, Windows Server for ...
and the
classic Mac OS
Mac OS (originally System Software; retronym: Classic Mac OS) is the series of operating systems developed for the Macintosh family of personal computers by Apple Computer from 1984 to 2001, starting with System 1 and ending with Mac OS 9. ...
to ones with research roots such as
EROS and
Plan 9 from Bell Labs.
The book was published by Addison-Wesley, September 17, 2003, and is also available online, under a
Creative Commons
Creative Commons (CC) is an American non-profit organization and international network devoted to educational access and expanding the range of creative works available for others to build upon legally and to share. The organization has release ...
license with additional clauses.
Contributors
The book contains many contributions, quotations and comments from UNIX gurus past and present. These include:
*
Ken Arnold (author of
curses and co-author of ''
Rogue
A rogue is a person or entity that flouts accepted norms of behavior.
Rogue or rogues may also refer to:
Companies
* Rogue Ales, a microbrewery in Newport, Oregon
* Rogue Arts, a film production company
* Rogue Entertainment, a software co ...
'')
*
Steve Bellovin
*
Stuart Feldman
*
Jim Gettys
*
Stephen C. Johnson
*
Brian Kernighan
*
David Korn
*
Mike Lesk
*
Doug McIlroy
*
Marshall Kirk McKusick
Marshall Kirk McKusick (born January 19, 1954) is a computer scientist, known for his extensive work on BSD UNIX, from the 1980s to FreeBSD in the present day. He was president of the USENIX Association from 1990 to 1992 and again from 2002 to ...
*
Keith Packard
Keith Packard (born April 16, 1963) is a software developer, best known for his work on the X Window System.
Packard is responsible for many X extensions and technical papers on X. He has been heavily involved in the development of X since the l ...
*
Henry Spencer
Henry Spencer (born 1955) is a Canadian computer programmer and space enthusiast. He wrote "regex", a widely used software library for regular expressions, and co-wrote C News, a Usenet server program. He also wrote ''The Ten Commandments for C P ...
*
Ken Thompson
See also
*
Unix philosophy
The Unix philosophy, originated by Ken Thompson, is a set of cultural norms and philosophical approaches to minimalist, modular software development. It is based on the experience of leading developers of the Unix operating system. Early Uni ...
*''
The Hacker Ethic and the Spirit of the Information Age''
References
External links
* Online book (HTML edition)
**
*
The Art of Unix Programmingat FAQs
2003 non-fiction books
Books by Eric S. Raymond
Computer programming books
Creative Commons-licensed books
Unix books
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