Reviews for Lions' Commentary on UNIX with Source Code

1. Great!

   Rated 5 out of 5 stars, November 12th, 2009

   This is a truly great book. The best computer book I've read. Its place as a classic is justified. A posting on Slashdot pointed me to it and just it's history alone made me interested in getting a copy. One of the great things about this is that it's a small OS, so easier to digest, but it's surprisingly relevant to today's Unix like OSs. John Lion's commentary is complete but light hearted. I can't recommend this book enough. It's a perfect example of code that is the result of design, evolution and art!

2. The Definition of "Operating System"!

   Rated 5 out of 5 stars, June 12th, 2008

   With so many philosophies and platforms around today it's hard to determine what we might expect from an operating system. Micro-kernel advocates deny that filesystems are essential, while Microsoft claims that window managers belong in the kernel!
   
   This book shows how much "bang" you can get out of a system with a tiny memory footprint. It gives a flavour of what using and developing for an old unix system would have been like.
   
   While it leads the reader through the anatomy of unix, and provides insights into mechanics and compromises of a functional system, it also hints at an unspoken challenge. Even liberally commented, Unix as described here sits in ten thousand lines of code. A mass comparable to university courseworks, and dwarfed by all but the simplest open source projects. Any geek that doesn't enjoy the rattle of that flung gauntlet needs to change career!
   

3. Seminal book for development of Unix

   Rated 5 out of 5 stars, November 12th, 1999

   I read this book a long time in its photocopied samizdat version - it's quite fitting that it's now legally available again, at the same time that Open Source software is resurgent.

   Well worth reading for historical interest and useful for serious students of operating systems...

4. The book for Unix kernel geeks

   Rated 4 out of 5 stars, May 12th, 1998

   The Lions Book was illegally pirated for many years after its publication, with fifth-generation photocopies being the most prized possessions of many Unix kernel hackers.

   It was republished shortly after the author died when the politics of the ownership of the Unix sources settled down.

   So what's so special about the book?

   The first reason is that John Lions believed strongly that just as in literature, where being able to read and analyse great works is more likely to lead to being able to write comparable works, software designers should learn to read and criticise working code. He chose Unix, 6th edition, running on the PDP-11. His book is a subset of the kernel sources, with commentary.

   The second reason is that the code itself is, in general, pretty fine stuff. It includes the legendary comment /* you are not expected to understand this */. It's amazing that so much of modern Unix functionality already existed in the mid-70s and ran in only 32kbytes of RAM.

   And thirdly, it's a historical document that describes a real operating system, that's come to effect the development of most subsequent system software.

   It's a great read, if you're a geek, and you suspect that good code, like good literature should be read and enjoyed.