Product Reviews

This book has impressive statistics, with more than 1,100 pages featuring more than a dozen authors, shaped into a 'professional' guide to Linux programming. Those of you who are using Linux, or thinking about it, will probably have read the sister volume, Beginning Linux Programming, and may be wondering what the 'Professional' title has to offer in exchange for your £43.99. The answer is not a lot, because the word 'Professional' in this case should be replaced with 'experienced'. You'll need to be already well-versed in the art of C programming, preferably have more than a passing knowledge of C++, be comfortable with your Linux system and keen to develop software on it.

Linux attracts the hardcore programmer, as open source always has done, and they won't be disappointed with this book. It's breadth of coverage is nothing less than stunning, stripping

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away all the padding and getting straight into technical development-level primers. It uses a contrived, but very real-world example of developing a DVD store application to impart all the necessary teaching. Not all the packages referenced are included in all Linux distributions, but where you need to download and install software to follow the tutorials you're provided with all the information needed - right down to command line arguments for installation and configuration purposes. The range of topics covered includes Concurrent Versions System, PostgreSQL and MySQL databases, GNOME and KDE desktops, and Red Hat Package Manager.

Along the way, many practical aspects of Linux application development are covered; Web-based interfaces such as the Apache PHP module, using Python for extending and embedding the language, and using both RPC and CORBA for constructing distributed object-based applications. Diskless systems, multimedia, internationalisation issues, clustering, security, LDAP and XML all get their share of the paper too. If you want to broaden your knowledge of Linux development there are worse books out there.

Like all books from the programmer-to-programmer imprint, you have code-heavy copy in your hands. I didn't analyse all the code to check for mistakes, but the myriad of Linux newsgroups regularly report code complaints, especially in first-edition titles, so checking these may be wise before making a purchase.