Chris F.A. Johnson was introduced to Unix in 1990 and learned shell scripting because there was no C compiler on the system. His first major project was a menundash;driven, userndash;extensible database system with report generator. Chris uses the shell as his primary, generalndash;purpose programming language, and his projects have included a member database, menuing system, and POP3 mail filtering and retrieval. Chris is the author of Shell Scripting Recipes: A Problemndash;Solution Approach (Apress, 2005). When not pushing shell scripting to the limit, he designs and codes web sites, teaches chess, and composes cryptic crosswords.