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. The animal featured on the cover of System Performance Tuning is a swordfish, a marine fish with a long, sword-shaped snout. The swordfish is distinguished from the marlin by its flattened snout, short, high dorsal fin, toothless mouth, and lack of scales. The fastest swimmer of all fish, a swordfish can grow up to 14 feet in length and weigh a thousand pounds or more. This combination of speed and size gives it strength and momentum--enough to drive its sword through the planking of a boat. The swordfish hunts by charging through schools of fish, striking to either side with its sword and then returning to collect its kill. UNIX and its attendant programs can be unruly beasts. Nutshell Handbooks(R) help you tame them.

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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 text of this book is set in Times Roman; headings are Helvetica; examples are Courier. Text was prepared using SoftQuad's sqtroff text formatter. Figures are produced with a Macintosh. Printing is done on an Apple LaserWriter.