Advanced Bash−Scripting Guide

Chapter 36. Endnotes
36.1. Author's Note
How did I come to write a Bash scripting book? It's a strange tale. It seems that a couple of years back, I
needed to learn shell scripting −− and what better way to do that than to read a good book on the subject? I
was looking to buy a tutorial and reference covering all aspects of the subject. I was looking for a book that
would take difficult concepts, turn them inside out, and explain them in excruciating detail with
well−commented examples. [67] In fact, I was looking for this very book, or something much like it.
Unfortunately, it didn't exist, and if I wanted it, I'd have to write it. And so, here we are, folks.
This reminds me of the apocryphal story about the mad professor. Crazy as a loon, the fellow was. At the
sight of a book, any book −− at the library, at a bookstore, anywhere −− he would become totally obsessed
with the idea that he could have written it, should have written it, and done a better job of it to boot. He would
thereupon rush home and proceed to do just that, write a book with the very same title. When he died some
years later, he allegedly had several thousand books to his credit, probably putting even Asimov to shame.
The books might not have been any good, who knows, but does that really matter? Here's a fellow who lived
his dream, even if he was obsessed by it, driven by it, and I can't help admiring the old coot...
36.2. About the Author
Who is this guy anyhow?
The author claims no credentials or special qualifications, other than a compulsion to write. [68] This book is
somewhat of a departure from his other major work, HOW−2 Meet Women: The Shy Man's Guide to
Relationships. He has also written the Software−Building HOWTO.
A Linux user since 1995 (Slackware 2.2, kernel 1.2.1), the author has emitted a few software truffles,
including the cruft one−time pad encryption utility, the mcalc mortgage calculator, the judge Scrabble®
adjudicator, and the yawl word gaming list package. He got his start in programming using FORTRAN IV on
a CDC 3800, but is not the least bit nostalgic for those days.
Living in a secluded desert community with wife and dog, he cherishes human frailty.
36.3. Tools Used to Produce This Book
36.3.1. Hardware
A used IBM Thinkpad, model 760XL laptop (P166, 104 meg RAM) running Red Hat 7.1/7.3. Sure, it's slow
and has a funky keyboard, but it beats the heck out of a No. 2 pencil and a Big Chief tablet.
36.3.2. Software and Printware
i. Bram Moolenaar's powerful SGML−aware vim text editor.
ii. OpenJade, a DSSSL rendering engine for converting SGML documents into other formats.
iii. Norman Walsh's DSSSL stylesheets.
iv. DocBook, The Definitive Guide, by Norman Walsh and Leonard Muellner (O'Reilly, ISBN
Chapter 36. Endnotes 360