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The Command Line Crash Course Controlling Your Computer From The Terminal

learncodethehardway.org

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Re: The Command Line Crash Course Controlling Your Computer From The Terminal

#51

Post by jebberjeb »

dangrossman wrote: post #38
dredmorbius wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Unless someone 'fessed up to it, you really have no way of knowing who did this. It could just as easily have been a drive-by script. And regardless, it was a hard, cheap, early lesson in the importance of ensuring fundamental levels of system security. I've ... suffered worse. I strongly suspect you'll never forget this.

This being more than a decade and a half ago, I doubt it was a drive-by script. I was dialed into AOL on a 4 letter screen name. I had just informed a channel of Linux users, who knew my public IP, that I had just installed Linux for the first time. The chances it wasn't someone from that IRC channel are near zero.

stop crying

Re: The Command Line Crash Course Controlling Your Computer From The Terminal

#52

Post by [deleted] »

gbog wrote: post #25
robbles wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Then why work through the examples? The "learn by rote" method he's using here is designed to help people with little or no experience catch up quickly, and remember what they've learned without the many years of daily use. If you just want to learn the odd helpful new trick, and basically know what you're doing, just ignore these parts.

That is just one example of the tone of this book, and I just don't like it, and I don't understand why it has so many supposedly adult people accepting things like: > No, seriously, type it 20 times and say it out loud. Sssh. Just do it. I supposed it was a kind of cold joke but it appears not to be. It is just very disrespectful for the reader. Grown up human beings are not to be taken by the hand like /this/ to le…

[deleted]

Re: The Command Line Crash Course Controlling Your Computer From The Terminal

#53

Post by jebberjeb »

jebberjeb wrote: post #51
dangrossman wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This being more than a decade and a half ago, I doubt it was a drive-by script. I was dialed into AOL on a 4 letter screen name. I had just informed a channel of Linux users, who knew my public IP, that I had just installed Linux for the first time. The chances it wasn't someone from that IRC channel are near zero.

stop crying

Hah! Downvote it all you want, you know it's true. He needs to stop crying.

Re: The Command Line Crash Course Controlling Your Computer From The Terminal

#55

Post by zedshaw »

xradionut wrote: post #44

Am I just a cranky old geek or does anyone else find Zed teaching CLI skills mildly amusing? Or is there truly a large population mentally bound by the graphical interface? Know the basic commands of getting things done isn't just for the experienced admins/developers like myself who have been using keyboards and terminals since the early DOS and VMS days. Ordinary users were able to create documents, check mail and…

Yes, sadly Microsoft (and to a certain extent Apple) have done an excellent job convincing people that the CLI is both dangerous and antiquated. So when they come to my other books and I tell them to use the CLI they have major problems. I'm writing this mostly as a quick way to get them over that speed bump then on to more useful programming topics.

Re: The Command Line Crash Course Controlling Your Computer From The Terminal

#56

Post by zedshaw »

gbog wrote: post #21

On page 3, about "whoami" > type this command 20 times and say it out loud I have many years of daily command line use behind me and never needed to use this command. I don't like being taken for a child.

It's not meant to be insulting, it's meant to be a method of learning the basics of a language that works. If you're insulted by it then just don't read it.

Re: The Command Line Crash Course Controlling Your Computer From The Terminal

#57

Post by zedshaw »

grannyg00se wrote: post #26
gbog wrote: post #21

On page 3, about "whoami" > type this command 20 times and say it out loud I have many years of daily command line use behind me and never needed to use this command. I don't like being taken for a child.

I agree. The tone is not for me and it sounds really put on. "The only piece of advice I am going to give you is this: Shut the hell up and type this in then try to understand it. Sorry to be mean, but that's what you have to do. You have an irrational fear of the command line and the only way to conquer an irrational fear is to just shut up and fight through it." Why say "shut the hell up"? Why assume that the reade…

Is it the word "hell" you disagree with or being told to do something? If it's "hell" I can remove that. If it's just because you don't want to be told to do something then don't read my book. You won't learn anything from it since the entire book is me telling you to do repetitive boring tasks.

As for why I wrote it: You may not have an irrational fear but a huge number of Windows and OSX users do. They've been told that the CLI is dangerous and antiquated so they avoid it and panic over it. Having someone like me just push them through actually gets them past that and on to learning how to use it.

Re: The Command Line Crash Course Controlling Your Computer From The Terminal

#59

Post by zedshaw »

jgmmo wrote: post #4

I got 1 upvote for anyone that can provide me a pdf of this thing.

Feel free to read the PDF, and I'll be putting it up for free since it's a huge benefit to my students if they know the CLI.

But, PLEASE, do not pass the PDF around to newbies until I say it's ready. Having old versions with potential errors floating around or that are half-done is really bad for them.

Re: The Command Line Crash Course Controlling Your Computer From The Terminal

#60

Post by jshen »

gbog wrote: post #40
jshen wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your characterization of both is wrong.

Pray explain a bit in which ways my characterization of both is wrong. (As any short description, my "portrait" maybe a bit of a caricature but I believe it expresses the meaning well enough.)

"You can't seriously compare teaching command line kungfu to some wannabee geeks in their spare time with the hardcore brainwashing given to infantry troops so they acquire enough Pavlovian reflex to stand and run below a shower of bombs and bullets."

1. All geeks learned the command line at some point. Even Linus. Calling the next Linux a "wannabee geek" is wrong.

2. basic training is for all soldiers, not just infantry soldiers. You choose infantry for the baggage it carried, and you didn't care that you were flat wrong.

3. I find your use of "pavlovian reflex" wrong. It has a negative connotation, but is all reflexive action "pavlovian". If so, all of my command line use is pavlovian because I do it reflexively without conscious thought. With that in mind, the military style is perfect because it's designed to train people to do things reflexively when the time comes.

4. basic training teaches many great things. You're dismissal of it as teaching people to "run below a shower of bombs" is wrong. I learned CPR amongst many other good things in basic. Things that again require one to do them almost reflexively, just like I use the command line.

In short, you are wrong.

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