UNIX PROGRAMMING

The Unix operating system is an important component of the worldwide computing infrastructure beyond the desktop and hand-held tablet. All computing equipment vendors offer Unix with their hardware. Computer clusters, and on a larger scale, data centres use Unix-based operating systems. Unix is more reliable and robust than MS-Windows, something like a truck engine versus car engine. The Linux avatar of Unix enjoys worldwide popularity in universities, labs and industry. Free and open-source, and with many distributions, Linux is guaranteed to stay with the times as the future unfolds.Linux apps do not have a wide base like MS-Win, but the Linux software out there is very high class. Linux should be part of the students routine from the first year onwards. As it turns out in our syllabus,Unix programming is taught only to CSE (in their final year) and IT (third year). It is a standalone subject; the idea is to get a lot of marks in the exams, but long-term skills are not gained. EE students get no exposure to it at all, inside the syllabus and curriculum or outside. If our colleges do not support or encourage Linux learning, it is up to individuals and groups to self-study. Learning Unix is not the same thing as learning MS-Windows. Not at all.In short: MS-Windows makes us car drivers, Unix makes mechanics. Further, mechanics can drive, but drivers cannot repair cars. An important distinction is that MS-Windows is proprietory and its design documents are confidential, while Linux is free and open source. You can open up the Linux source code, see how it works, modify some of it if you wish, recompile the code, and have your own version of the OS. It is as if you can open up the hood of a car and repair it (even change the engine) but you are not allowed this with the other car. The power of shell programming comes from the power of the command line. You may have used the Windows command line occasionally. The Unix command line is nothing like that. The differencesare: (1) the large number of shell commands, and (2) the many options that go with each command.Unix programmersare familiar with both these aspects, though they might not remember all the details. Shell programming is the next step. A shell script is simply a programmade out of shell commands, in a special-purposeshell programming language with C-like syntax. This is a subject not so much to be taught, as to be learned through self-study and practice.(Relatively few students can manage this.) Unix is a complex system. Your ability to handle it depends on your thinkingand programmingskills, not your area of study. Some people have an aptitude for programming, but the skill has to be cultivated. Ideally it starts with sound programming fundamentals, acquired in a first course in programming. Competent Unixprofessionals, both programmers and system administrators, are in great demand. As they gain experience in the complexities and details of the Unix world, their career path opens up. It is hardly the case that a skilled Unix professional is jobless, partly because it is not easy to be one. I am not asking you to learn about Unix because of the job angle. I am doing so because for many technically minded people, a study of a versatile and complex OS is a worthy aim in itself. Check out if you enjoy learning about Unix. Practice is essential. Competence and skills will be yours, over time. Practical: If you have a computer at home, it is necessary that you install Linux on your machine. You can do this in two ways: (1) You can have a dual-boot system, where you can start up either MS-Windows or Linux, or (2) You can install and run Linux in a virtual machine using, e.g., the VMWare player, free from www.vmware.com. (You can run multiple operating systems on one piece of hardware, each OS on a virtual machine.)The advantage of a virtual machine player is that it can be started and stopped at our conveniencethere is no need to reboot. The disadvantage is the performance loss in using a virtual instead of real machine, acceptable on todays computers, but not on older ones.