Matthew Neil - Beginning Linux programming Cover title. - Wrox programmer to programmer.. - Includes index

Beginning Linux Programming, 4th Edition Published by
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Some content that appears in print may not be available in electronic books. About the Authors Neil Matthew has been interested in and has programmed computers since 1974. A mathematics graduate from the University of Nottingham, Neil is just plain keen on programming languages and likes to explore new ways of solving computing problems. Hes written systems to program in BCPL, FP (Functional Programming), Lisp, Prolog, and a structured BASIC. He even wrote a 6502 microprocessor emulator to run BBC microcomputer programs on UNIX systems. In terms of UNIX experience, Neil has used almost every flavor since the late 1970s, including BSD UNIX, AT&T System V, Sun Solaris, IBM AIX, many others, and of course Linux.

He can claim to have been using Linux since August 1993 when he acquired a floppy disk distribution of Soft Landing (SLS) from Canada, with kernel version 0.99.11. Hes used Linux-based computers for hacking C, C++, Icon, Prolog, Tcl, and Java at home and at work. All of Neils home projects are developed using Linux. He says Linux is much easier because it supports quite a lot of features from other systems, so that both BSD- and System V-targeted programs will generally compile with little or no change. Neil is currently working as an Enterprise Architect specializing in IT strategy at Celesio AG. He has a background in technical consultancy, software development techniques, and quality assurance.

Neil has also programmed in C and C++ for real-time embedded systems. Neil is married to Christine and has two children, Alexandra and Adrian. He lives in a converted barn in Northamptonshire, England. His interests include solving puzzles by computer, music, science fiction, squash, mountain biking, and not doing it yourself.
Rick Stones started programming at school (more years ago than he cares to remember) on a 6502-powered BBC micro, which, with the help of a few spare parts, continued to function for the next 15 years. He graduated from Nottingham University with a degree in Electronic Engineering, but decided software was more fun.

Over the years he has worked for a variety of companies, from the very small with just a dozen employees, to the very large, including the IT services giant EDS. Along the way he has worked on a range of projects, from real-time communications to accounting systems, to very large help desk systems. He is currently working as an IT architect, acting as a technical authority on various major projects for a large pan-European company. A bit of a programming linguist, he has programmed in various assemblers, a rather neat proprietary telecommunications language called SL-1, some FORTRAN, Pascal, Perl, SQL, and smidgeons of Python and C++, as well as C. (Under duress he even admits that he was once reasonably proficient in Visual Basic, but tries not to advertise this aberration.) Rick lives in a village in Leicestershire, England, with his wife Ann, children Jennifer and Andrew, and a cat. Outside work his main interests are classical music, especially early religious music, and photography, and he does his best to find time for some piano practice.

Credits Acquisitions Editor Jenny Watson Development Editor Sara Shlaer Technical Editor Timothy Boronczyk Production Editor William A. Barton Copy Editor Kim Cofer Editorial Manager Mary Beth Wakefield Production Manager Tim Tate Vice President and Executive Group Publisher Richard Swadley Vice President and Executive Publisher Joseph B. Wikert Project Coordinator, Cover Adrienne Martinez Graphics and Production Specialists Mike Park, Happenstance-Type-O-Rama Craig Woods, Happenstance-Type-O-Rama Proofreader Amy McCarthy, Word One Indexer Johnna VanHoose Dinse Anniversary Logo Design Richard Pacifico Acknowledgments The authors would like to record their thanks to the many people who helped to make this book possible. Neil would like to thank his wife, Christine, for her understanding and children Alex and Adrian for not complaining too loudly at Dad spending so long in The Den writing. Rick would like to thank his wife, Ann, and their children, Jennifer and Andrew, for their very considerable patience during the evenings and weekends while Dad was yet again doing book work. As for the publishing team, wed like to thank the folks at Wiley who helped us get this fourth edition into print.

Thanks to Carol Long for getting the process started and sorting out the contracts, and especially to Sara Shlaer for her exceptional editing work and Timothy Boronczyk for his excellent technical reviews. We also wish to thank Jenny Watson for chasing down all those odd bits of extras and generally guiding the book through the administrative layers, Bill Barton for ensuring proper organization and presentation, and Kim Cofer for a thorough copyedit. We are very grateful also to Eric Foster-Johnson for his fantastic work on Chapters 16 and 17. We can say that this is a better book than it would have been without the efforts of all of you. We would also like to thank our employers, Scientific Generics, Mobicom, and Celesio for their support during the production of all four editions of this book. Finally we would also like to pay homage to two important motivators who have helped make this book possible.