Erik Troan and I co-authored two editions of Linux Application Development, so I have some idea of what it takes to write a Linux programming book. It’s a lot of work to do well, doing proper research, trying to keep up to date, trying to meet the needs of a wide variety of readers.

Over the past several years, I have had a sense that the Linux man pages were becoming more complete, with a growing body of precise and nuanced detail. At some point, I became aware that it was Michael Kerrisk’s fine work that I was appreciating, as he built substantially on the fine base provided by the previous maintainers Rik Faith and Andries Brouwer.

Michael Kerrisk then picked up the task of writing a book to cover similar material as Linux Application Development, but in both greater detail and extended scope. His new work, The Linux Programming Interface, has after long labor been published, and it looks like it was worth the wait. After reading a few initial sample chapters (the preface, and chapters 2, 9, and 30), I can say with great relief that it appears that Erik and I do not need to prepare a third edition of Linux Application Development — we can name TLPI as LAD’s successor. Erik and I wrote LAD because it was the book we needed as a reference that was not otherwise available. That reason appears to be dissipating.

I’m looking forward to reading the whole book after it arrives, and reporting my impressions in more detail later!