Exploring Expect: A Tcl-Based Toolkit for Automating Interactive Programs

Although I've just started reading the book ( first 5 chapters ) it already impressed me with intensive depth the author covers all related topics. Sure, Expect is great ( and thank's for this tool, Don ! ) but this book isn't only about Expect - it's about almost *everything* you'll ever need to program interactive scripts using Expect. It talks about Tcl, zombies in UNIX, regular expressions ( really *in depth* talk ), "\r\n" vs "\r" and "\n" and hell knows what else ( fortunately, I have many more to read ) ! It reminds me the "Data munging with Perl" collecting the vast collection of data processing techniques using Perl.A pleasure to read. Don is a professional and experienced programmer and a nice writer. After I finish it I'll probably have even more to say ..

When I discovered Perl I though it's a quick and dirty way to automate admin tasks. I was wrong. The really quick and dirty way is Expect. Expect works like Helpdesk hotline. You call them and they ask you what you see and tell you what you should type. Sometimes you just have no alternatives especially if you're short on time. But the language is pretty tricky (e.g. if you want to look for '$' in regexp, you should use '\\\$' pattern, etc) and I couldn't learn it using just examples included in the distribution package. Then I spent some time searching for the good tutorial and this book was the best I found. Expect is surprisingly poorly documented and I didn't find any other books about it. There are some articles in the Internet, but usually they don't give you the whole picture. This book includes many examples, easy stuff in the beginning to get you started and very advanced in the end. That's everything you need to learn expect and it's written pretty friendly. In some places it's very informal but not too much.

The only book about Expect, so one cannot compare it to others. But it serves it's purpose. Expect is a Tcl extension with about forty extra commands and variables to handle interactive processes from a script. This capability is unique to that Language. With ExpectK one can use Tk as well. I read the book in three nights, because it was such a help to my sysadmin tasks on UNIX. But despite all my propaganda, only one other person picked it up for writing a chat robot. The book is a must for every UNIX admin, if he is free to use the languages he likes, which is, unfortunately, not the case in many banks.

This book is terrific. Libes writes very smoothly. Everything is answered and just at the right time - whenever I was wondering about a point, I would turn the page and find my question to be the next topic covered!I really thought Expect was a simple-minded thing. Then I had a question about how to do something. I was bemoaning my problem one day when a coworker thrust this book into my hand and said "Read it!" Wow - not only did it have my exact scenario as an example but now I see Expect can do so many more cool things. I originally thought Expect was just good for telnet. But Libes shows examples applying it to all sorts of other programs. The breadth of the examples alone is incredible. It's obvious that Libes has really been around and poured all his wisdom and experience into this book.I also liked the special command and variable index (the book calls it "Appendix") which is a 2nd index that takes you directly to where each command and option and variable is definitively described. There is also a third index of just the examples - some of them are useful in their own right (apart from demonstrating some concept). Between these and the regular index, it is always easy to find things later.I wish all tech books were written this well.

This book, along with Ousterhout and Sun's references on the www, comprise the triolgy that is jump-starting my learning tcl. I find the index compete and easy to use and I frequently jump all around the book gleaning little nuggets of information. I am also concurrently reading it cover-to-cover because I like Libes's style -- the way he throws in his programming phylosophy with his examples so you can see why he's doing something a certain way. I like how the author addresses issues of portability without obsessing on it. I really like the Exercises at the end of each chapter. I only wish the author would apply a difficulty rating to each exercise because sometimes I can't tell if an exercise is intrinsically very difficult (some are definitely so) or if I need to review parts of the chapter to see why I can't just instantly 'get it.' In any event, the exercises are stimulating and would require a long time and careful thought to do them all. I would buy a book that had the answers, with commentary, to all the exercises.