|
|
Home | Switchboard | Unix Administration | Red Hat | TCP/IP Networks | Neoliberalism | Toxic Managers |
| (slightly skeptical) Educational society promoting "Back to basics" movement against IT overcomplexity and bastardization of classic Unix | |||||||
|
|
|
|
Steve Wainstead
- Paperback: 599 pages ; Dimensions (in inches): 1.29 x 9.15 x 7.00
- Publisher: O'Reilly & Associates; (December 1994)
- ISBN: 1565920902
- Average Customer Review:
Based on 20 reviews. Write a review.
- Amazon.com Sales Rank: 45,603
A completely different tool July 17, 2000Scott Truesdell (see more about me) from Costa Mesa, CA USAExpect is completely unlike any other tool I have ever used. Think of any language you've used and how long it would take to: write a program that can update 1000 user passwords on 20 different machines; make two chess programs play each other; connect two users to the same shell program and type at the same time; allow you to rewrite the command arguments to any command line tool?
Expect really does make all these things trivial. It takes a lot of patience to master this tool though; Tcl is a very unforgiving and terse language. I've done things in Expect that I never thought were possible: I scripted Minicom (a modem term program that uses ncurses) to answer a phone after 7 seconds, and either: receive a zmodem file or send a login prompt. Then hang up the modem and wait again. Try that in a shell or systems language!
It's unfortunate that Expect is such a radically different beast and takes so long to understand; every person running regression tests or doing systems administration will benefit from this book. While it may not be great for just "looking up" things, search Usenet for all of the author's posts (comp.lang.tcl) and his answer is almost always, "This is on page XXX of the book." Because the book really does cover everything Expect does!
This book, along with Ousterhout and Sun's references on the www, comprise the triolgy that is jump-starting my learning tcl. I find the index compete and easy to use and I frequently jump all around the book gleaning little nuggets of information. I am also concurrently reading it cover-to-cover because I like Libes's style -- the way he throws in his programming phylosophy with his examples so you can see why he's doing something a certain way.
Good examples, good index, good explanations, May 20, 1998
I like how the author addresses issues of portability without obsessing on it.
I really like the Exercises at the end of each chapter. I only wish the author would apply a difficulty rating to each exercise because sometimes I can't tell if an exercise is intrinsically very difficult (some are definitely so) or if I need to review parts of the chapter to see why I can't just instantly 'get it.' In any event, the exercises are stimulating and would require a long time and careful thought to do them all. I would buy a book that had the answers, with commentary, to all the exercises.
Reviewer: Ruslan Moskalenko (see more about me) from Lafayette, CA United States
When I discovered Perl I though it's a quick and dirty way to automate admin tasks. I was wrong.
The really quick and dirty way is Expect. Expect works like Helpdesk hotline. You call them and they ask you what you see and tell you what you should type. Sometimes you just have no alternatives especially if you're short on time. But the language is pretty tricky (e.g. if you want to look for '$' in regexp, you should use '\\\$' pattern, etc) and I couldn't learn it using just examples included in the distribution package. Then I spent some time searching for the good tutorial and this book was the best I found. Expect is surprisingly poorly documented and I didn't find any other books about it. There are some articles in the Internet, but usually they don't give you the whole picture. This book includes many examples, easy stuff in the beginning to get you started and very advanced in the end. That's everything you need to learn expect and it's written pretty friendly. In some places it's very informal but not too much.
[email protected] from Cupertino, CA
wolfega from Cincinnati, OHThis book is terrific. Libes writes very smoothly. Everything is answered and just at the right time - whenever I was wondering about a point, I would turn the page and find my question to be the next topic covered!
I really thought Expect was a simple-minded thing. Then I had a question about how to do something. I was bemoaning my problem one day when a coworker thrust this book into my hand and said "Read it!" Wow - not only did it have my exact scenario as an example but now I see Expect can do so many more cool things. I originally thought Expect was just good for telnet. But Libes shows examples applying it to all sorts of other programs. The breadth of the examples alone is incredible. It's obvious that Libes has really been around and poured all his wisdom and experience into this book.
I also liked the special command and variable index (the book calls it "Appendix") which is a 2nd index that takes you directly to where each command and option and variable is definitively described. There is also a third index of just the examples - some of them are useful in their own right (apart from demonstrating some concept). Between these and the regular index, it is always easy to find things later.
I wish all tech books were written this well.
This is one of the worst books, written about one of the worst programming languages. The information is scattered and difficult to harvest. Understanding this book and writing code in Expect is a huge headache.
However, if you don't buy the book, forget about ever writing reasonably complex programs in Expect.
I rated the book five stars because, while not a good book by any standard, it is infinitely better than having no reference at all (which is perhaps why it is so difficult to find information about Expect on the web). It's well worth the [money], but expect to spend some time learning about Expect.
****
Tcl/Tk for Real Programmers ~
Clif Flynt / Paperback / Published 1998
Amazon price: $29.97 ~
Dave Zeltserman, Gerard Puoplo / Hardcover / Published 1998
Amazon price: $50.00
*** Tcl/Tk Tools
Mark Harrison, et al / Paperback / Published 1997
Amazon price: $39.96 ~
The Complete Tcl/Tk Training Course
Brent B. Welch, Dave Zeltserman / Paperback / Published 1998
Amazon price: $79.99 ~
Mark Harrison, Michael J. McLennan / Paperback / Published 1997
Amazon price: $39.95
Graphical Applications With Tcl and Tk
Eric Foster-Johnson, Johnson Eric Foster / Paperback / Published 1997
Amazon price: $31.96 ~
Interactive Web Applications With Tcl/Tk
Hattie Schroeder, et al / Paperback / Published 1998
Amazon price: $31.96 ~
Practical Programming in Tcl & Tk
Brent B. Welch / Paperback / Published 1997
Amazon price: $42.00
Tcl and the Tk Toolkit (Addison-Wesley Professional Computing)
John K. Ousterhout / Paperback / Published 1994
Amazon price: $44.95
**** Building Network Management Tools With Tcl/Tk (Prentice Hall Series in Computer Networking and Distributed Systems) Dave Zeltserman, Gerard Puoplo
/ Hardcover / Published 1998
Amazon price: $50.00
**** Tcl/Tk Tools
The Complete Tcl/Tk Training CourseMark Harrison, et al / Paperback / Published 1997
Amazon price: $39.96 ~You Save: $9.99 (20%)
Brent B. Welch, Dave Zeltserman / Paperback / Published 1998
Amazon price: $79.99 ~You Save: $20.00 (20%)
Mark Harrison, Michael J. McLennan / Paperback / Published 1997
Amazon price: $39.95
Graphical Applications With Tcl and Tk
Eric Foster-Johnson, Johnson Eric Foster / Paperback / Published 1997
Amazon price: $31.96 ~You Save: $7.99 (20%)
Interactive Web Applications With Tcl/Tk
Hattie Schroeder, et al / Paperback / Published 1998
Amazon price: $31.96 ~You Save: $7.99 (20%)
Practical Programming in Tcl & Tk
Brent B. Welch / Paperback / Published 1997
Amazon price: $42.00
Tcl and the Tk Toolkit (Addison-Wesley Professional Computing)
John K. Ousterhout / Paperback / Published 1994
Amazon price: $44.95
Tcl/Tk for Dummies (For Dummies)
Tim Webster, et al / Paperback / Published 1997
Amazon price: $23.99 ~You Save: $6.00 (20%)
Tcl/Tk for Programmers With Solved Exercises That Work With Unix and Windows
J. A. Zimmer / Paperback / Published 1998
Amazon price: $45.00
Tcl/Tk
for Real Programmers ~
Clif Flynt / Paperback / Published 1998
Amazon price: $29.97 ~You Save: $19.98 (40%)
Tcl/Tk in a Nutshell : A Desktop Quick Reference (Nutshell Handbook)
Paul Raines, et al / Paperback / Published 1999
Amazon price: $19.96 ~You Save: $4.99 (20%)
Paul Raines / Paperback / Published 1998
Amazon price: $6.36 ~You Save: $1.59 (20%)
Web Development With Tcl/Tk 8.1 : A Complete Resource for Programmers and Developers
Steve Holzner, Steven Holzner / Paperback / Published 1999
Amazon price: $35.99 ~You Save: $9.00 (20%)
Tcl Reference and Tk Reference
Paperback / Published 1996
Amazon price: $4.50 + $2.35 special surcharge (Special Order)
Clif Flynt / CD-ROM / Published 1998
Amazon price: $1.95 (Back Ordered)
Tcl/Tk Programmer's Reference (Programmer's Reference Series)
Chris Nelson / Paperback / Published 1999
Amazon price: $13.59 ~You Save: $3.40 (20%) (Not Yet Published -- On Order)
Gerald Lester / Paperback / Published 1999
Amazon price: $36.00 ~You Save: $9.00 (20%) (Not Yet Published -- On Order)
Red Hat Press / Paperback / Published 1999
Amazon price: $39.99 ~You Save: $10.00 (20%) (Not Yet Published)
Tcl/Tk for Dummies (For Dummies)
Tim Webster, et al / Paperback / Published 1997
Amazon price: $23.99 ~
Tcl/Tk for Programmers With Solved Exercises That Work With Unix and Windows
J. A. Zimmer / Paperback / Published 1998
Amazon price: $45.00
Tcl/Tk for Real Programmers ~
Clif Flynt / Paperback / Published 1998
Amazon price: $29.97 ~
Tcl/Tk in a Nutshell : A Desktop Quick Reference (Nutshell Handbook)
Paul Raines, et al / Paperback / Published 1999
Amazon price: $19.96 ~
Paul Raines / Paperback / Published 1998
Amazon price: $6.36 ~
Web Development With Tcl/Tk 8.1 : A Complete Resource for Programmers and Developers
Steve Holzner, Steven Holzner / Paperback / Published 1999
Amazon price: $35.99 ~
Tcl Reference and Tk Reference
Paperback / Published 1996
Amazon price: $4.50 + $2.35 special surcharge r)
Clif Flynt / CD-ROM / Published 1998
Amazon price: $1.95
Tcl/Tk Programmer's Reference (Programmer's Reference Series)
Chris Nelson / Paperback / Published 1999
Amazon price: $13.59 ~
Gerald Lester / Paperback / Published 1999
Amazon price: $36.00 ~
Red Hat Press / Paperback / Published 1999
Amazon price: $39.99 ~
Society
Groupthink : Two Party System as Polyarchy : Corruption of Regulators : Bureaucracies : Understanding Micromanagers and Control Freaks : Toxic Managers : Harvard Mafia : Diplomatic Communication : Surviving a Bad Performance Review : Insufficient Retirement Funds as Immanent Problem of Neoliberal Regime : PseudoScience : Who Rules America : Neoliberalism : The Iron Law of Oligarchy : Libertarian Philosophy
Quotes
War and Peace : Skeptical Finance : John Kenneth Galbraith :Talleyrand : Oscar Wilde : Otto Von Bismarck : Keynes : George Carlin : Skeptics : Propaganda : SE quotes : Language Design and Programming Quotes : Random IT-related quotes : Somerset Maugham : Marcus Aurelius : Kurt Vonnegut : Eric Hoffer : Winston Churchill : Napoleon Bonaparte : Ambrose Bierce : Bernard Shaw : Mark Twain Quotes
Bulletin:
Vol 25, No.12 (December, 2013) Rational Fools vs. Efficient Crooks The efficient markets hypothesis : Political Skeptic Bulletin, 2013 : Unemployment Bulletin, 2010 : Vol 23, No.10 (October, 2011) An observation about corporate security departments : Slightly Skeptical Euromaydan Chronicles, June 2014 : Greenspan legacy bulletin, 2008 : Vol 25, No.10 (October, 2013) Cryptolocker Trojan (Win32/Crilock.A) : Vol 25, No.08 (August, 2013) Cloud providers as intelligence collection hubs : Financial Humor Bulletin, 2010 : Inequality Bulletin, 2009 : Financial Humor Bulletin, 2008 : Copyleft Problems Bulletin, 2004 : Financial Humor Bulletin, 2011 : Energy Bulletin, 2010 : Malware Protection Bulletin, 2010 : Vol 26, No.1 (January, 2013) Object-Oriented Cult : Political Skeptic Bulletin, 2011 : Vol 23, No.11 (November, 2011) Softpanorama classification of sysadmin horror stories : Vol 25, No.05 (May, 2013) Corporate bullshit as a communication method : Vol 25, No.06 (June, 2013) A Note on the Relationship of Brooks Law and Conway Law
History:
Fifty glorious years (1950-2000): the triumph of the US computer engineering : Donald Knuth : TAoCP and its Influence of Computer Science : Richard Stallman : Linus Torvalds : Larry Wall : John K. Ousterhout : CTSS : Multix OS Unix History : Unix shell history : VI editor : History of pipes concept : Solaris : MS DOS : Programming Languages History : PL/1 : Simula 67 : C : History of GCC development : Scripting Languages : Perl history : OS History : Mail : DNS : SSH : CPU Instruction Sets : SPARC systems 1987-2006 : Norton Commander : Norton Utilities : Norton Ghost : Frontpage history : Malware Defense History : GNU Screen : OSS early history
Classic books:
The Peter Principle : Parkinson Law : 1984 : The Mythical Man-Month : How to Solve It by George Polya : The Art of Computer Programming : The Elements of Programming Style : The Unix Hater’s Handbook : The Jargon file : The True Believer : Programming Pearls : The Good Soldier Svejk : The Power Elite
Most popular humor pages:
Manifest of the Softpanorama IT Slacker Society : Ten Commandments of the IT Slackers Society : Computer Humor Collection : BSD Logo Story : The Cuckoo's Egg : IT Slang : C++ Humor : ARE YOU A BBS ADDICT? : The Perl Purity Test : Object oriented programmers of all nations : Financial Humor : Financial Humor Bulletin, 2008 : Financial Humor Bulletin, 2010 : The Most Comprehensive Collection of Editor-related Humor : Programming Language Humor : Goldman Sachs related humor : Greenspan humor : C Humor : Scripting Humor : Real Programmers Humor : Web Humor : GPL-related Humor : OFM Humor : Politically Incorrect Humor : IDS Humor : "Linux Sucks" Humor : Russian Musical Humor : Best Russian Programmer Humor : Microsoft plans to buy Catholic Church : Richard Stallman Related Humor : Admin Humor : Perl-related Humor : Linus Torvalds Related humor : PseudoScience Related Humor : Networking Humor : Shell Humor : Financial Humor Bulletin, 2011 : Financial Humor Bulletin, 2012 : Financial Humor Bulletin, 2013 : Java Humor : Software Engineering Humor : Sun Solaris Related Humor : Education Humor : IBM Humor : Assembler-related Humor : VIM Humor : Computer Viruses Humor : Bright tomorrow is rescheduled to a day after tomorrow : Classic Computer Humor
The Last but not Least Technology is dominated by two types of people: those who understand what they do not manage and those who manage what they do not understand ~Archibald Putt. Ph.D
Copyright © 1996-2021 by Softpanorama Society. www.softpanorama.org was initially created as a service to the (now defunct) UN Sustainable Development Networking Programme (SDNP) without any remuneration. This document is an industrial compilation designed and created exclusively for educational use and is distributed under the Softpanorama Content License. Original materials copyright belong to respective owners. Quotes are made for educational purposes only in compliance with the fair use doctrine.
FAIR USE NOTICE This site contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available to advance understanding of computer science, IT technology, economic, scientific, and social issues. We believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided by section 107 of the US Copyright Law according to which such material can be distributed without profit exclusively for research and educational purposes.
This is a Spartan WHYFF (We Help You For Free) site written by people for whom English is not a native language. Grammar and spelling errors should be expected. The site contain some broken links as it develops like a living tree...
|
|
You can use PayPal to to buy a cup of coffee for authors of this site |
Disclaimer:
The statements, views and opinions presented on this web page are those of the author (or referenced source) and are not endorsed by, nor do they necessarily reflect, the opinions of the Softpanorama society. We do not warrant the correctness of the information provided or its fitness for any purpose. The site uses AdSense so you need to be aware of Google privacy policy. You you do not want to be tracked by Google please disable Javascript for this site. This site is perfectly usable without Javascript.
Last modified: March 12, 2019
