discuss: Re: Unix Command Line HOWTO
Subject:
Re: [discuss] Re: Unix Command Line HOWTO
From:
David Lawyer ####@####.####
Date:
10 Dec 2011 08:43:06 +0000
Message-Id: <20111210085538.GA1390@davespc>
On Fri, Dec 09, 2011 at 09:39:47PM -0500, Howard Gibson wrote:
> If I called this a Terminal HOWTO, would new users understand?
> Another possibility is UNIX Command Shell HOWTO. Still, the term
> shell means nothing to non-geeks. The scary thing about UNIX
> and Linux is usually the "command line".
>
I'm the author of Text-Terminal HOWTO. Today the word "Terminal"
often means one of a number of computers located in a public library
(or the like) and they are not at all command line but are GUI
(usually Windows based). Linux can also support such GUI computers.
So the use of "Terminal HOWTO" would not be a a good idea unless it
also covered GUI terminals. My HOWTO was/is about the now obsolete
pieces of hardware which looked something like old CRT monitors, but
could display only text. But since today's command-line interfaces
emulate the old text-terminals, my HOWTO is still of some value. It
doesn't cover commands except those relating to the interface, such as
"clear" to clear the screen. Thus the need for documentation of Linux
commands.
As I mentioned previously, there is a LDP guide on this that I think
was poorly whiten. There are the man pages. And there's a few
printed books on the topic. Deficiencies of the man pages are that
they don't give enough examples nor do they explain using more than
one command on a single line by the use of a pipeline: the output of
the first command becomes the input to the second command, etc.
Thus a doc on the command line doesn't need to duplicate the detail of
the man pages but should show how to do things by the use of two or more
commands on one line, or by writing a shell script using many lines
and many different commands to accomplish a complex task. But such a
doc needs to pick the most important commands and explain them as
well as mentioning less important ones without explaining their
details (which can be found in the man pages).
Searching the Internet, I just came across a book that can be
purchased in hard-copy form or downloaded for free in PDF format.
It's "The Linux Command Line" by Wm Shotts Jr. Creative commons
license.
David Lawyer
