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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)

#51

Post by metadat »

Izkata wrote: post #45
avg_dev wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Correct, it's -cvf.

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

#53

Post by lifthrasiir »

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 learned to behave as if there is no second argument for ln. Instead of doing `ln -s path/to/foo bar` I do `ln -s path/to/foo` then `mv foo bar`. Of course it doesn't always work, but covers most use cases for me.

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

#54

Post by Tijdreiziger »

vxNsr wrote: post #25
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.

This is why imo powershell (when done right) is more powerful than bash (no matter how correctly it’s done). Powershell cmdlet names are descriptive and generally make sense as do the parameter names, additionally the guidelines for how to make powershell commands forces a certain style that once you grok it makes sense for most powershell commands. If bash has something like that I’m still missing it. Obviously the…

PowerShell’s learning curve was too steep for me (or maybe I didn’t try hard enough, idk). I used it for a couple of years, but once WSL turned up I went back to my trusty old Linux skills.

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

#55

Post by lrobinovitch »

hvs wrote: post #44
MobiusHorizons wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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."

I love tldr for this https://github.com/tldr-pages/tldr

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

#59

Post by latexr »

fezfight wrote: post #48
hinkley wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Where does existential dread fit in there?

There’s plenty of opportunity to ponder one’s own existence while chopping wood and carrying water. Or to listen to a podcast.

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

#60

Post by a-dub »

jahewson wrote: post #41
MobiusHorizons wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

nah. learning unix was fun. having all the documentation online and in an easily called up and consistent format made it possible. microcomputer operating systems didn't have things like "man -k" and while we can complain all day here till we're blue in the face about small quirks, it was light-years beyond the crap that was going on in microcomputer operating systems.

even when doing windows or embedded development with tools like visual studio or wrs tornado, i've always insisted on having mkl or cygwin for command line tasks.

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