Our look is the result of reader comments, our own experimentation, and feedback from distribution channels. Distinctive covers complement our distinctive approach to technical topics, breathing personality and life into potentially dry subjects.
A Canada goose graces the cover of Migrating to FORTRAN 90. Canada geese, also called "honkers" because of their horn-like call, are migratory birds. Their range extends from Canada and Alaska in the summer, to the Gulf of Mexico in the winter. Canada geese are highly social, living in groups called gaggles or skeins of 200 to 300 individuals. During the breeding season each pair, which mate for life, split from the larger group. Nesting begins in March or April, depending on latitude and weather. Canada geese preferably nest on the ground near water, but have been known to inhabit the abandoned nests of birds of prey in trees. Clutch size averages 5 to 6, and incubation takes 28 days. The female goose incubates the eggs, while the gander stands guard beside her. They are very protective, as anyone who has approached a nesting pair knows. Their hissing is legendary, and their beating wings can become serious weapons. There is a record of a man being knocked from his horse by a goose protecting its nest; the man recovered but the goose died. There have also been reports of geese beating dogs and other attackers with their wings, and if attacked in the water they've been known to sit on their adversary's head until they drown.
The young are led to water soon after hatching, and in the case of those hatched in trees, are pushed out by their mothers. Goslings have many enemies, including large fish. But for those who survive, maturity comes in only six weeks, in time to assimilate into a group and begin their first migration. Geese fly in distinctive V and W shaped patterns, and their distinctive honking is a harbinger of spring for people who live along their flight path. Geese have been clocked at 60 mph, but take many months to arrive at their summer feeding grounds. They travel only as fast as the temperature rises, and move an average of 9 to 30 miles a day.
UNIX and its attendant programs can be unruly beasts. Nutshell Handbooks(R) help you tame them.
Edie Freedman designed this cover and the entire UNIX bestiary that appears on other Nutshell Handbooks. The beasts themselves are adapted from 19th-century engravings from the Dover Pictorial Archive. The cover layout was produced with QuarkXPress 3.1 using the ITC Garamond font.
The inside layout was designed by Edie Freedman and was implemented by Mike Sierra in FrameMaker 3.1 using the ITC Garamond Light and ITC Garamond Book fonts. The figures were created in Aldus Freehand 3.1 by Chris Reilley. The colophon was written by Allen Noren.
