RE: [off topic] Learning Shell from an old UNIX book

["Milanuk, Monte" <monte@chelanpud.org>]

I've got the same book, though unfortunately I got derailed from finishing
it.  So take that in consideration.

I think if you dig around on Amazon or Barnes & Noble, you'll be able to
read a variety of reviews and opinions on this and other books.  I do that a
lot to help me assess whether or not I think the book will be helpful for
me.  I'm not entirely sure, but there might be a newer version of the book
out.  May not really matter for beginning stuff, I'm not sure.

Bash does have its own syntax that is enhanced over sh (the straight Bourne
shell).  But most references I've read strongly recommend keeping most of
your scripts sh compliant for portability, and save the whizbang features of
stuff like bash, ksh, and zsh for command-line stuff.  Seems like a little
bit of a waste, but it does make your script less dependent on feature 'foo'
of a given release of your favorit pet shell.

YMMV,

Monte