Earlier in the year, I announced that I was writing a book entitled Unix Shell Hacks for O’Reilly & Associates, but the past few months have demonstrated that the project was problematical for both parties, with a variety of glitches plaguing the now-defunct project. I won’t go into it, but suffice to say that we have parted ways amicably on this particular project and I’m pleased to announce that I have a new home for what will prove to be a great book on Unix (and Mac OS X) shell script programming. I even get to go back to my original working title for the book thanks to my new publisher, NoStarch Press: Wicked Cool Shell Scripts. Cool, eh?

Even more fun, here’s a mockup of the cover:

Of course things often change as the production cycle proceeeds, but I’m quite pleased to have a chance to work with my friend Bill Pollock over at NoStarch and expect this book to be a fun project and a great addition to your bookshelf.

To whet your appetite, here’s our “why to buy” marketing copy, so far:

• Not a step-by-step tutorial, but a cookbook-style series of example code that will empower any Unix user.
• Author is well-known and has written many best-selling computer books
• Teaches readers how to customize their Unix/Linux enviornment in a relatively fast and hassle-free way, without having to learn a complete programming language.
• Contains cutting-edge examples of games, photo albums and guest books – functionality not normally associated with shell scripting

Sound good? We hope so!