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From novice to master, and back again (2013)

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Re: From novice to master, and back again (2013)

#41

Post by jahewson »

MobiusHorizons wrote: post #31
hcks wrote: post #17

This reminds me of an old joke I heard a while back, which is that the opposite of "it's like riding a bike" is "it's like the UNIX command line". No matter how many times you do it, you will have to re-learn it every single time.

I think what a lot of people don’t get about the Unix command line is that learning to use the tool is part of the experience. Sure I forget the precise flags to get various tools doing what I need, but browsing the man page and rediscovering the breadth of the tool is half the beauty.

What? That’s some intense Stockholm syndrome right there.

Re: From novice to master, and back again (2013)

#42

Post by the_af »

focusedone wrote: post #16

Wow, epic! The most depressing thing is being presented with an issue and finding my name attached to a closed ticket from years before with no explanation of how I fixed it. Guess what, current me, you're going to learn this again from scratch because past me was in a hurry and couldn't be bothered to type out what he did. BSG - this has all happened before, and it will all happen again.

My favorite pattern is to go look for an answer in the StackExchange network, find myself nodding in agreement with one of the answers, then read the author... me, 10 years ago!

Re: From novice to master, and back again (2013)

#43

Post by geek_at »

sneak wrote: post #15
startupdiscuss wrote: post #9

Zen Koan: Before I began my studies in Zen, I thought a tree was a tree and a stone, a stone. When I started to study Zen, I could see that a tree was not a tree, and a stone was not a stone. Now that I am a Zen master, I know that a tree is a tree and a stone is a stone. -- Source: my buddy in college I think you come full circle to learn that you can only keep so much in your head at one time and that you're always…

Related: The Egg http://www.galactanet.com/oneoff/theegg_mod.html

Interesting read, thanks for sharing

Re: From novice to master, and back again (2013)

#44

Post by hvs »

MobiusHorizons wrote: post #31
hcks wrote: post #17

This reminds me of an old joke I heard a while back, which is that the opposite of "it's like riding a bike" is "it's like the UNIX command line". No matter how many times you do it, you will have to re-learn it every single time.

I think what a lot of people don’t get about the Unix command line is that learning to use the tool is part of the experience. Sure I forget the precise flags to get various tools doing what I need, but browsing the man page and rediscovering the breadth of the tool is half the beauty.

The only feeling I've gotten looking at a man page is, "well, I don't have to time to dig through all of this. Guess I'll just look at stack overflow which will have my exact use case and required parameters."

Re: From novice to master, and back again (2013)

#45

Post by Izkata »

avg_dev wrote: post #30
jpitz wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Truly relevant XKCD https://xkcd.com/1168/

I’ve never understood that one. I realize it’s just a joke, but xvf/cfv (extract/compress, view, uh,. Ok I did have to look up f, which I think is file) and the z for gzip is one of the few commands I have no trouble remembering.

Though if you include the dash to use those as flags, the second one is wrong (it treats the "v" as the file name for "f"). Without the dash, the next positional argument is the file name.

Examples: These do the same thing:

  tar cfv foo.tar a b c
  tar cvf foo.tar a b c
  tar -cvf foo.tar a b c
This errors, trying to add foo.tar to archive v:

  tar -cfv foo.tar a b c

Re: From novice to master, and back again (2013)

#46

Post by kortilla »

icambron wrote: post #27
hcks wrote: post #17

This reminds me of an old joke I heard a while back, which is that the opposite of "it's like riding a bike" is "it's like the UNIX command line". No matter how many times you do it, you will have to re-learn it every single time.

I use the `ln` command a lot. I use the `man ln` command _almost_ as much.

“Same argument order as cp” always helped me.

Re: From novice to master, and back again (2013)

#47

Post by a-dub »

icambron wrote: post #27
hcks wrote: post #17

This reminds me of an old joke I heard a while back, which is that the opposite of "it's like riding a bike" is "it's like the UNIX command line". No matter how many times you do it, you will have to re-learn it every single time.

I use the `ln` command a lot. I use the `man ln` command _almost_ as much.

i've always considered manpages to be sort of part of the unix command line experience. since they're fast, it's no matter.

but yea, it took me many years to wire down ln's target link_name semantics for some reason.

what helped for me was to reason about the single argument form. ln -s ~/opt/junk/bin/thinger creates a link to thinger in the current directory. this single argument form is easy to remember, if you want to create a link of course you have to specify the name of the target (from which the link name will be inferred) and since it's the only argument it has to be the first one. now if you want to give it a different name, put the name in obvious still open place, the second argument.

Re: From novice to master, and back again (2013)

#48

Post by fezfight »

hinkley wrote: post #29
startupdiscuss wrote: post #9

Zen Koan: Before I began my studies in Zen, I thought a tree was a tree and a stone, a stone. When I started to study Zen, I could see that a tree was not a tree, and a stone was not a stone. Now that I am a Zen master, I know that a tree is a tree and a stone is a stone. -- Source: my buddy in college I think you come full circle to learn that you can only keep so much in your head at one time and that you're always…

Before enlightenment: chop wood, carry water After enlightenment: chop wood, carry water

Where does existential dread fit in there?

Re: From novice to master, and back again (2013)

#49

Post by BbzzbB »

sneak wrote: post #15
startupdiscuss wrote: post #9

Zen Koan: Before I began my studies in Zen, I thought a tree was a tree and a stone, a stone. When I started to study Zen, I could see that a tree was not a tree, and a stone was not a stone. Now that I am a Zen master, I know that a tree is a tree and a stone is a stone. -- Source: my buddy in college I think you come full circle to learn that you can only keep so much in your head at one time and that you're always…

Related: The Egg http://www.galactanet.com/oneoff/theegg_mod.html

Kurzgesagt's short video is great too, it's (quasi-)verbatim, but the music, animation and narration makes it quite poignant.

The idea behind the story is quite fascinating to me. If simulationists are right, it's as good or better of a "why" as "origin seeking" IMO. Not that I believe one way or the other, I just think the idea's interesting to ponder on.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h6fcK_fRYaI

Re: From novice to master, and back again (2013)

#50

Post by sergiotapia »

15 years working as a software dev. There have been many times Sergio from the past has saved my ass. I find exactly what I needed to get something done and turns out the author was me. Coworkers also sometimes find my stuff so that's a nice feeling.

If you write code do yourself a favor and write for future you. It'll help.

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