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 Crypto5Premium
join:2001-01-07
Saint Charles, MO | reply to haze9
Re: The One Page Linux Manual I guess I should weigh back in with something constructive instead of just being a jerk. I owe it to this place.
When asking "how many UNIX commands must I learn?" There is a simple (If a bit Zen-like of an) answer:
As many as are required to get your work done
For an end user who will just be web browsing and listening to mp3's, you wont need many.
Keep in mind your newest UNIX Brethren, the OS X users, who dont even have a link to get to the command shell in the deault OS X installation. They have to dig for it. So you see, there are *some* unices for which a command prompt may not be necessary at all!
On the other hand, I probably use quite a bit more UNIX commands in my daily doings than most end users.
On the other other hand, I know that some of the real gurus in here, like Friedl, have forgotten more UNIX than I'll ever know.
I guess what I'm saying is this: If your goal is to become an expert, you probably should learn as many commands as possible, if that's what you desire from UNIX. But as UNIX becomes a viable end-user operating system, there are more and more people who dont usually want to learn every possible command line arg that can be piped through sendmail. They just want a computer that doesnt call Redmond every 10 minutes. Will you give them URL's to helpful cheat sheets? Or will you forever spurn them as n008s?
In closing, UNIX commands are not Pokemon.
You don't have to catch them all.
--
There are no stupid questions, but there are a lot of inquisitive idiots. | |
 SteveI know your IP addressConsultant
join:2001-03-10
Yorba Linda, CA
kudos:5 | said by bellers:
As many as are required to get your work done
This is right on the money. I suppose that memorizing boatloads of UNIX commands might make one a hit with the ladies in some circles, but it sure as hell never worked for me.
Learning concepts is a lot more important than learning details, because you can always look up which option does this or that. In addition, once you start working on multiple platforms, each of which might work a little differently, remembering that it's -a instead of -b is a minor benefit.
When I was a UNIX newbie in 1981, I spent my time reading the UNIX man pages at night before bed. Not only did this insure no distractions from any kind of "social life", but it also gave me a big-picture idea of what kinds of commands were out there. I didn't even think about memorizing options - it would have been pointless. Instead I simply noted what kinds of facilities were available, so later on I would say "Hey, I know I saw a command for something like this". Then I'd be able to look it up and be the clever fellow. One of the jokers in the VAX room got me a T-shirt that said "system manual".
Your brain can only hold so much stuff, so I'd much rather know the difference between the various kinds of disk partitions than know which fdisk options requested them.
Steve
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Stephen J. Friedl / Software Consultant / Tustin, California USA / »www.unixwiz.net | | |
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