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The Unix Pipe Card Game

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Re: The Unix Pipe Card Game

#21

Post by dhosek »

SamBam wrote: post #7

As a science teacher and former software dev, I find this totally cute, and I understand exactly why the creator chose to make it a physical card game. That said, I do think the translation into a physical card game means that kids aren't getting the experimentation and near-instant feedback that they'd be getting if they were doing this digitally. In order for a kid to "win," they either have to already know, or exp…

I’m wondering whether it could be played with a Unix box connected to the big TV in the living room so that with each command added to the pipe you can see the result. That’s my instinct for what to do with this, although it does feel like it is a play once kind of game.

Re: The Unix Pipe Card Game

#22

Post by Dilettante_ »

GNOMES wrote: post #17

This gets shared a ton, but the old Bell Labs video from 4:56 to 10:52 is still the best way I have seen pipes explained: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tc4ROCJYbm0

Nit: You can get a link to a specific time in the video by clicking the "share" button and ticking "start at": https://youtu.be/tc4ROCJYbm0?&t=296

Re: The Unix Pipe Card Game

#24

Post by somat »

behnamoh wrote: post #15

I wish pipes would transfer more than just text to avoid re-parsing.

Pipes don't transfer text, they transfer a unformatted byte stream. The commands however do expect a particular format. There is going to be serialization/parsing regardless of the format the command expects. Even if it is an internal object format as found in powershell commands.

Re: The Unix Pipe Card Game

#25

Post by cube00 »

GNOMES wrote: post #17

This gets shared a ton, but the old Bell Labs video from 4:56 to 10:52 is still the best way I have seen pipes explained: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tc4ROCJYbm0

Great video, when I first watched it, it switched my thinking from "why is *nix so hard to use" to understanding they were really trying to build with the user in mind and to learn more about the "*nix way" to work with it, not against it.

Re: The Unix Pipe Card Game

#26

Post by cube00 »

giancarlostoro wrote: post #18

We need one for SELinux for adults, it'll lowkey force people who haven't taken the time to learn SELinux to learn it and be fully capable of using it without fear.

I felt a lot better after seeing even the all knowing LLMs couldn't explain how a set of files were getting labelled automatically with a label that didn't match the parent directory.

Re: The Unix Pipe Card Game

#27

Post by shakna »

d-us-vb wrote: post #9
SamBam wrote: post #7

As a science teacher and former software dev, I find this totally cute, and I understand exactly why the creator chose to make it a physical card game. That said, I do think the translation into a physical card game means that kids aren't getting the experimentation and near-instant feedback that they'd be getting if they were doing this digitally. In order for a kid to "win," they either have to already know, or exp…

As a young Linux user I always hated the experimentation aspect because usually it meant just straight up getting the command wrong 5 times before trying to read the man page, thinking I understood what the man page meant, trying again another 5 times and then giving up. This idea of experimenting and getting instant feedback is just survivorship bias for a certain type of person, not “the way we ought to teach Unix…

I'd add nuance to Hermans' work. Its not all experiment blind, but also not feedback-less. They advocate for "direct instruction", not just rote learning.

> As that is not a surprise, since research keeps showing that direct instruction—explanation followed by a lot of focused practice—works well.

Note the "lot of focused practice".

[0] https://www.felienne.com/archives/6150

Re: The Unix Pipe Card Game

#28

Post by robocat »

d-us-vb wrote: post #9
SamBam wrote: post #7

As a science teacher and former software dev, I find this totally cute, and I understand exactly why the creator chose to make it a physical card game. That said, I do think the translation into a physical card game means that kids aren't getting the experimentation and near-instant feedback that they'd be getting if they were doing this digitally. In order for a kid to "win," they either have to already know, or exp…

As a young Linux user I always hated the experimentation aspect because usually it meant just straight up getting the command wrong 5 times before trying to read the man page, thinking I understood what the man page meant, trying again another 5 times and then giving up. This idea of experimenting and getting instant feedback is just survivorship bias for a certain type of person, not “the way we ought to teach Unix…

> usually it meant just straight up getting the command wrong 5 times before trying to read the man page, thinking I understood what the man page meant, trying again another 5 times

I think that is a developer's superpower. The poncy term for it is grit. I tell others that the secret to leaning computers is frustration and persistence.

> and then giving up.

Knowing when to stop or change direction is hard.

I've definitely wasted years of work failing to solve something that I eventually had to give up on (most memorably depending on nasty Microsoft products).

But I've also been paid very nicely because I've solved problems that others struggled with.

And I was paid for the failures too.

Re: The Unix Pipe Card Game

#29

Post by [deleted] »

somat wrote: post #24
behnamoh wrote: post #15

I wish pipes would transfer more than just text to avoid re-parsing.

Pipes don't transfer text, they transfer a unformatted byte stream. The commands however do expect a particular format. There is going to be serialization/parsing regardless of the format the command expects. Even if it is an internal object format as found in powershell commands.

[deleted]

Re: The Unix Pipe Card Game

#30

Post by inopinatus »

d-us-vb wrote: post #9
SamBam wrote: post #7

As a science teacher and former software dev, I find this totally cute, and I understand exactly why the creator chose to make it a physical card game. That said, I do think the translation into a physical card game means that kids aren't getting the experimentation and near-instant feedback that they'd be getting if they were doing this digitally. In order for a kid to "win," they either have to already know, or exp…

As a young Linux user I always hated the experimentation aspect because usually it meant just straight up getting the command wrong 5 times before trying to read the man page, thinking I understood what the man page meant, trying again another 5 times and then giving up. This idea of experimenting and getting instant feedback is just survivorship bias for a certain type of person, not “the way we ought to teach Unix…

I'm trying to remember being a young Unix user but it was four decades ago, so the details become hazy. Nevertheless the proper go-to after the manpage fails to clarify matters is the same as it ever was, that is, one reads the source code, if you have it, and this is easier today than ever.
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