[FM Discuss] Book idea: useful command lines

[adam hyde]

is it possible to make something a little friendlier than a FAQ format?
maybe taking Micks metaphor of the command line tourist a little further
and making an interesting format from this? im not sure what this would
be exactly, but FAQs, while useful, are not a very enticing format. 

adam


On Fri, 2009-10-30 at 11:17 -0700, Jeffrey Osier-Mixon wrote:
> Hi all
> 
> I suggest an FAQ format rather than a manual.  I am much more often 
> asked "how do I do X" than "what does this command do".  Subsequent 
> entries can build on previous ones. 
> 
> Here is a lame example:
> ___________________________________________________________________
> Q: Of the hundreds of random text files on my desktop, how can I 
> determine where I wrote down how to spell my new niece's name?
> 
> $ cd $HOME/Desktop; grep niece *
> 
> That didn't locate anything.  I don't think I used the term "niece", but 
> my brother's name is George.
> 
> $ grep George *
> 
> Q: That didn't work either, and her first birthday is coming up!  What 
> shall I do?  What shall I do?
> 
> $ grep -i george * | grep -i daughter
> to-do1234.txt: george's daughter's name is Ezmerelda
> ___________________________________________________________________
> 
> 
> The trick is figuring out what people are going to want to do, and 
> presenting the items in a logical order rather than just a random list 
> of "how do I" entries.  This example is about guessing what one's past 
> self might have used as a search term that the future self would 
> remember, but it might make sense to then follow up with better advice, 
> and then explain what is going on in the example. 
> 
> ___________________________________________________________________
> Q: How am I going to remember her name and birthday in the future?
> 
> One method is for your computer to remind you.  This example uses 
> <code>cron</code>, a daemon that runs in the background and performs 
> periodic tasks.  First, create a temporary text file to hold the entry 
> (see "man 5 crontab" for details on cron entry syntax).  The example 
> shows storing a message in a temporary file and then popping it up at 
> the appropriate time, in this case noon on November 15 of any year.  
> Then install the new entry by running the <code>crontab</code> command.
> 
> $ cat > new-cron
> 0 12 15 11 * 'cat "Ezmereldas birthday coming up on 12/1" > /tmp/foo ; 
> xmore -display :0 /tmp/foo ; rm /tmp/foo'
> ^D
> $ crontab ./new-cron
> 
> Note that these commands create a new crontab entry file, erasing 
> previous entries.  To add more entries, or to edit this one:
> 
> $ crontab -e
> 
> To list all of your cron entries:
> 
> $ crontab -l
> ___________________________________________________________________
> 
> 
> I would further suggest that this valuable subject could be best covered 
> in a wiki rather than in a manual, so that readers can contribute by 
> asking questions that the authors won't have considered.
> 
> I hope this is useful!
> 
> 
> adam hyde wrote:
> > i think this project, and Micks summation of the tourists guide to the
> > command line is cool...it might be interesting to send out emails asking
> > for peoples one-liners...there would be a tonne of interesting one
> > liners out there that i am sure people would like to contrib...formating
> > a good email and sending (where appropriate) to some lists might yield
> > interesting returns
> >
> > shall we create an empty manual for this? if so, what do we call it?
> >
> > adam
> >   
> 
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