Eric Johnson Books

This book does little more than give a little very brief overview on the various tools that are available, then points the reader to where he or she can find more detailed info. Next to useless in and of itself as a reference guide.

This book does little more than give a very, very brief overview of the various Unix development tools and points the reader to where to look to find more information. It would function well as a directory, but not as a tutorial.

Good overview of practical tools for serious Unix programming, with some mention of cross-platform work on Windows. Also has a number of good book and www references, as well as a nice CD-ROM of freeware tools. Easily worth the price to the beginning or intermediate-level Unix programmer needing to build a toolkit.

I agree with the previous poster's comments on the viability of this book for learning programming. The title is all wrong; it's not specifically about programming! HOWEVER, it is a very good book for those new to Linux in that it answers alot of the questions that new users have. It highlights the many of the strengths of LINUX from a UNIX point of view. i.e. pipes, redirections, job-control, Xconfiguration, programming basics. Patrick Volkerding does a very good job of demonstrating Linux and detailing it's true power. This book should be renamed "Getting started in LINUX". If it was...I'd give it five starz!

Caveat Emptor. I bought this book without really looking at it first... what a mistake! Of the 370 total pages, the first 114 pages are about installing the Slackware CD included in the back cover (installing and configuring Linux was covered in the first of this series of books). Those 114 pages might have been better used to cover "programming" in Linux. The 2nd chapter [C Programming Tools and Linux] goes from page 115 to page 134 (less than 18 pages of content). The 3rd chapter [X Windows Programming] goes from page 135 to page 179 (less than 44 pages of content). Chapter 4 [Using Tcl] goes from page 181 to page 201 (less than 19 pages). And so on... The book tries to cover too much. Most of the information is not even useful for doing anything, not even introductory in nature. I'm sorry I bought the book, and I hope this review will keep others from wasting their money on it. All in all, this is one of the worst computer books I've ever purchased, and I'm very sorry I got it.

The lazy man is Penzler. I was caught bookless and had to have something quickly a couple of days ago, so I picked this up on the title alone. I read widely, but my weakness has always been mysteries, preferably of the who-done-it variety with psychological insights. I've read historial and contemporary, procedurals and cozies..lots and lots of English and American writers. So I figured...The 50 Greatest Mysteries! Edited by a Big Name in mystery fiction. I expected well written and carefully chosen mysteries, including lesser known fascinating puzzles. Penzler is well known in mystery literature: owner of the Mysterious Bookshop, compiler, guest lecturer...a Name in the Business. The "Best" of anything is always an argument, so even if the stories were not "the best" they would certainly be contenders.
The stories are arranged chronologically, and Penzler provides a very brief introductory paragraph. He does not suggest why the story is included (and in one instance, refers to a story that is not included as better than his example). He doesn't discuss or distinguish between a true mystery, a suspense story, a procedural or a cozy. Arguments abound as to what is a 'mystery' and Penzler doesn't attempt to add to or resolve the discussions. He adds no insights or points of view--nothing to justify his choices. Some of his dated pieces are charmless, so I have to assume they were included as exemplars of the period, but Mr. Penzler doesn't place the unfamiliar within a context. Instead, he seems to have included the oldest first, plodding through the genre to fill the pages before the next book, which will probably be called Another 50 of the Greatest Mysteries. The book seems complied haphazardly and named to sell.

Perhaps I ask too much. There are some lovely stories,and some that are interesting. He includes a brief suspenseful piece by Edith Wharton. She's a lovely writer, but not an ounce of mystery is involved in the tale. The Red Headed League is an early Sherlock Holmes which is fun but not the best of Doyle. I can't argue with The Purloined Letter (Poe), and am happy to known that writers not known for mysteries actually wrote a few (Jack London, Aldus Huxley, Thomas Hardy[and its a good one], Thurber, AA Milne, Ogden Nash) but they are not the Greatest Mysteries. Fredrick Irvington Anderson's story is dated and tiresome--and Mr. Anderson is not a familiar name. Mr. Penzler doesn't crack stories from 1950 until page 327--two thirds of the way through the book. But it is probably cheaper to republish stories well past their copyright conflicts date.

They ain't The Greatest Mysteries. They are sometimes interesting. Some are truly fine. If you want context, insight or thematic consistency, look elsewhere. These are complied tales, not an editor's choice. On the other hand, if you are caught bookless and need 567 page of choices, you will find some good stories, some seldom published historical oddies to leaf through, some to skip and certainly, along the way, something to like.

I bought this for a class I was taking and it is not interesting enough to buy unless you have to, like me.

After a quick perusal, I found this book to be highly out-dated in today's context. Content-wise, it is more of a career planning guide for first timers, & not a systematic comprehensive life/work planning guide as suggested in the secondary title of this book. This was my mistake, as I was attracted by the latter. I originally thought that I could pick up some winning fundamentals of life/work planning.

Worst of all, this book used the old-fashioned typewriter fonts, & was printed in a manuscript format, which further aggravated my reading process.

Fortunately, my copy is a used one, which I have bought very cheaply from an online shop.

On the whole, I have been very disappointed.

This book is a joke! Mistakes in every area-take the transcription of "Zap" for instance. An Ab chord in the standard notation, but the tab shows a Db chord! The opening run-how do you slur from an F on the D string to an Eb on the A string, then to Ab on the D string to Bb on the G string? A G5 chord symbol over a Ab5 in the notation and tab? A5 labeling a Bb5? What!? Plus, this should be notated in A, with instructions to tune down 1/2 step! Take the fourth bar of "Trademark"-E should be on the second fret, not the third. How do you play B on the second fret, then magically switch to the seventh fret while still holding the note?! You get the idea-this reminds me of the "authentic" Hendrix transcriptions, which are as equally screwed up. Think twice before wasting your money on this!