With its decidedly user-unfriendly command line interface, Linux can be a foreboding operating system for the beginner. Far from the simple point-and- click style of Windows this UNIX derivative can be confusing to the point of raw frustration for all but the most patient of new users. Good job those nice people at Wrox Press have taken the subject in hand then! In spite of the age of this volume (it was published back in 1996) Beginning Linux Programming has aged very well and if you forgive the mentions of beta versions of some old versions of software there's plenty in here to keep the average Linux newbie happy.

Over 700 pages authors Neil Matthew and Richard Stones broach a huge number of topics ranging from shell programming to the use of curses, communication using sockets and an introduction to the Tcl language in an informative and easy to digest fashion. The one thing this book doesn't do is teach the newbie how to install Linux--that task is left in the hands of sister volume Instant Unix, but if you've already got that far and are looking for pointers on where to go next, Beginning Linux Programming could be the answer to the lion's share of your problems.

2002-02-04 If you can read it, you dont need it

This book is a highly condensed survey of the programming methods available in linux.As such it is useful.Because of the condensation, frequent reference to the various documentation facilities available within linux is necessary. Here is where it gets sticky. You have to find out for yourself how to navigate the documentation. As a for instance; to discover information about the built in functions in perl, type perldoc -f split.
I use split as an example, substitute for split the function in question.This is not obvious to the newbie reader and it will involve considerable work to discover it. This kind of information is not available in the book as it so easily could be and so a good effort is spoiled.