Reviews of the Book!

If you're still not sure that Wicked Cool Shell Scripts is a good addition to your technical library, this page contains links to many different online reviews, ranging from slashdot to unix review. And if you're a reviewer and would like a copy, please contact me and we'll see what we can do!

Unix Review

"Even someone with scripting experience might learn a thing or two. Before buying this book, I never had a script that attractively formatted large number strings, but now I do. The 004.nicenumber.sh script also provides options for changing the decimal and thousands delimiters. And if you are already shell-scripting savvy, you might enjoy comparing your scripting solutions to the problems that Taylor presents."

Home Unix.org

"There is definitely something for everyone in this book, and I, particularly, found the chapters dealing with web hacks and administration really useful."

slashdot.org

"As convenient as it is to download the entire script library, I would like to stress the value of buying the book, which will provide you with invaluable instruction and guidance in understanding the syntax of the scripts and it also illustrates how making small but significant tweaks can modify the output to match your specific needs."

ITWorld

"This book is a great cookbook for shell scripts. Dave Taylor has taken 101 tasks, turned them into shell scripts and offered suggestions for tweaking them for your own custom usage. Several of these suggestions will be modified and added to my own code base. This book is broken up into sections covering things from building your own code library and enhancing existing commands to automating administrative tasks and creating your own games. A chapter is even dedicated to scripting within Mac OS X. Wicked Cool Shell Scripts is not for beginners, but is suggested reading for anyone who enjoys shell scripting or is responsible for administrating systems."

MacinTech

"This incredibly fun book (really!), written by Dave Taylor, a veteran UNIX, Solaris and Mac OS X author, is chock full of 101 scripts to customize the UNIX (Bourne) shell...

"In true "cookbook" fashion, each hack is numbered and divided into The Code, How It Works, Running the Script, The Results and Hacking the Script. Throughout, the author clearly describes the syntax and functionality of each script, often with additional notes in How It Works detailing the syntax process and interesting asides. But Hacking the Script is what gives Wicked Cool Shell Scripts true value; where applicable, the author uses this section to describe script modifications to achieve a variety of alternative real world, practical results. This additional section alone easily triples the total number of scripts the reader is exposed to."

The ScreenSavers, TechTV

TV appearance on one of the most popular TechTV programs, co-host Patrick and I spent time exploring a couple of fun scripts from the book, including bestcompress, and the stock management portfolio tool.

News.com

"Still, it's not just retrogeek fashion that's keeping command-line interfaces around. It turns out they're actually useful--for example, command scripts can ease remote administration chores and automate humdrum tasks." More commentary than review, frankly. :-)

macblog

"While I'm proficient in basic shell scripting, I found tons of valuable examples in this book, as well as many useful scripts that I've added to my personal script library. If you're interested in the command line and shell scripting, this is an excellent book which will extend your knowledge, and provide more than a hundred ready-to-run scripts."

Computerworld

"Wicked Cool Shell Scripts is "about making Unix a friendlier, more powerful, and more personal computing environment by exploiting the remarkable power and capabilities of the shell..."

Steve Suehring

"I can't give this book enough praise and high enough recommendation for anyone new to Linux (and/or any scriptable *nix flavor, including Mac OS X) or even for people who aren't newbies but want to go to the next step with their *nix knowledge and abilities. Quite simply, this is the book that I wish I would've had when I was just learning Linux. I see some of the scripts in this book and can't help but think how long I spent trying to write the script to do that function. If only this book would've been out in 1995! That said, there's no real strong reason why someone new to Linux should have to go through all the pain of learning how to accomplish these tasks. Grab a copy of Wicked Cool Shell Scripts instead."

Thomas Duff

"Taylor's done a great job with this book... A well-written book packed with a ton of practical information. If you have a background in shell scripting and you want to stretch a little, this is the book for you..."

R. Scott FitzGerald

"I wanted to say thank you for a truly incredible book! I've been a Linux user for almost a decade and a Unix user for longer than that so I've seen my share of books on Unix and shells but "Wicked Cool Shell Scripts" grabbed me by the throat within seconds of picking it up at my local Barnes and Noble. (The examples using lynx, alone, are worth the purchase price!)

"I never imagined that one could do so many "cool" things with BASH! Thanks again and I hope you are working on a sequel!"

The Manitoba Unix User Group

"The book is engagingly written... The biggest and most pleasant surprise is the book is somewhat of a tutorial, rather than simply a compilation... It's essentially a readable "Unix command line tutorial in a nutshell" kind of book... If you're a shell-scripting expert and are curious about just the shell scripts, download them from intuitivestories.com/wicked. Those of us less expert will benefit from plunking down the $43.95 CDN and working through the scripts one at a time."

Amazon.com: Great guide to scripts

"Folks, if scripts intimidate you in any way, this book is great! It brings practical scripts in a wide variety of areas to you. Once you learn these scripts, it's easy to customize them to meet your needs.

If you're really interested in becoming a Linux Sysadmin, you need to know how to script. Once you learn these scripts, you'll be able to demonstrate your knowledge on any interview! "

Amazon.com: Wickedly Excellent!

"I first laid eyes upon this book at a computer show; the publisher had a paper copy. This is a cool publisher with alot of cool books and as I browsed this one I realized that this was going to be another one. Yipppeee! It's finally out and it's even better with the real cover :)

Okay, seriously now. This is a great book. Gets right to the point and it's much more fun to ready than other scripting books that I've seen. You get alot in a little space."

Amazon.com: Should have on your Desk!

"This is one of those "should have on your desk" books. The book and Dave's website is a great resource. I wanted to do some statistical work and though I was going to have to break down and use Excel or Calc. Then I ran into Dave's book/website. After a little reading, I realize it was possible to nix Excel. Using a couple of Dave's tricks and his scriptbc tool, I had the job done. All shell sans Excel. Nice book, nice website --really useful."