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<p>Hi there Jaysinh,</p>
<p>Thanks so much for this review. I'll copy and paste it below for
others to read. <br>
</p>
Thanks also for making a correction. I think this would be a good
chance to test out and document our new (more manual) publishing
workflow for pdf and epubs.<br>
<br>
I also noticed that book isn't on our front page! So a greater
incentive. <br>
<br>
Thanks<br>
Mick<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
<div class="moz-cite-prefix">On 03/03/17 07:09, Jaysinh Shukla
wrote:<br>
</div>
<blockquote
cite="mid:76657898-5d9d-b802-0390-a59ce43f276d@gmail.com"
type="cite">Respected members,
<br>
<br>
I read the book "Introduction to the Command line" written by
this community. I would like to congratulate for noble efforts by
this community. I would be happy to read such good books in
upcoming months. I have blogged book review after reading this
book here
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://blog.jaysinh.com/book/review/2017/02/28/book-review-introduction-to-the-commandline.html">http://blog.jaysinh.com/book/review/2017/02/28/book-review-introduction-to-the-commandline.html</a>
. Hope this review will help. Many thanks!
<br>
</blockquote>
<br>
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charset=windows-1252">
<header class="post-header" style="margin-bottom: 30px;">
<h1 class="post-title" itemprop="name headline" style="margin: 0px
0px 15px; padding: 0px; font-weight: 400; font-size: 42px;
letter-spacing: -1px; line-height: 1;">Book review 'Introduction
to the Command Line'</h1>
<p class="post-meta" style="margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px;
font-size: 14px; color: rgb(130, 130, 130);"><time
datetime="2017-02-28T00:00:00+00:00" itemprop="datePublished">Feb
28, 2017</time></p>
</header>
<div class="post-content" itemprop="articleBody"
style="margin-bottom: 30px;">
<p style="margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; color: rgb(17, 17,
17); font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial,
sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal;
font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal;
font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2;
text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none;
white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;
-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(253, 253,
253);"><img src="cid:part1.9B6E93F9.A6C500A4@flossmanuals.net"
alt="introduction_to_command_line" style="max-width: 100%;
vertical-align: middle;"></p>
<h2 id="tldr" style="margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px;
font-weight: 400; font-size: 32px; color: rgb(17, 17, 17);
font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial,
sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal;
font-variant-caps: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2;
text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none;
white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;
-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(253, 253,
253);">tl;dr</h2>
<p style="margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; color: rgb(17, 17,
17); font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial,
sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal;
font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal;
font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2;
text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none;
white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;
-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(253, 253,
253);">Every chapter will introduce a bunch of comands and will
point to its respective documentation for further learning. You
should expect chapters describing from the<span
class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a
href="https://www.gnu.org/software/grep/manual/grep.html"
style="color: rgb(23, 86, 169); text-decoration: none;">grep</a><span
class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>command to<span
class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a
href="https://www.gnu.org/software/octave/" style="color:
rgb(23, 86, 169); text-decoration: none;">GNU Octave</a><span
class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>which is a scientific
programming language. The chapters are independent of each
other. The book is must read if you are new to the<span
class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a
href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linux" style="color:
rgb(23, 86, 169); text-decoration: none;">GNU/Linux</a><span
class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>command line. If you are
at the intermediate level, then too investing time in reading
this book will unveil a few surprises for you.</p>
<h2 id="detailed-review" style="margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding:
0px; font-weight: 400; font-size: 32px; color: rgb(17, 17, 17);
font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial,
sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal;
font-variant-caps: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2;
text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none;
white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;
-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(253, 253,
253);">Detailed review</h2>
<p style="margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; color: rgb(17, 17,
17); font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial,
sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal;
font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal;
font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2;
text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none;
white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;
-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(253, 253,
253);">The book is community driven and published under<span
class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a
href="http://flossmanuals.net/" style="color: rgb(23, 86,
169); text-decoration: none;">FLOSS Manual</a>. It is a
collaborative effort of the<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a
href="http://www.fsf.org/" style="color: rgb(23, 86, 169);
text-decoration: none;">FSF</a>community. The fun part is you
can contribute to<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>
this book by adding new chapters or by improving an existing
one. I fixed one typo in this book after reading. The best
introduction is crafted comparing GUI based image editing tools
with the most unknown command<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a
href="https://linux.die.net/man/1/convert" style="color:
rgb(23, 86, 169); text-decoration: none;">convert</a>. It
conveys the importance of command line well to the reader.
Initial chapters will present the overview of various<span
class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a
href="https://www.gnu.org/software/bash/" style="color:
rgb(23, 86, 169); text-decoration: none;">GNU/bash</a>commands.
From my personal experience, you have to use mentioned commands
in this chapter daily. The chapter of Command history shortcuts
depicts geeky shell patterns. I will advise not to skip that
chapter and read through once. The advanced section was not much
advance for me. It demonstrates<a
href="https://linux.die.net/man/1/ssh" style="color: rgb(23,
86, 169); text-decoration: none;">ssh</a><span
class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>and related commands
like<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a
href="https://linux.die.net/man/1/scp" style="color: rgb(23,
86, 169); text-decoration: none;">scp</a><span
class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>and more. I appreciated
the preference of using<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a
href="https://www.gnu.org/software/screen/" style="color:
rgb(23, 86, 169); text-decoration: none;">GNU Screen</a><span
class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>though I use<span
class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a
href="https://tmux.github.io/" style="color: rgb(23, 86, 169);
text-decoration: none;">tmux</a><span
class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>over it. If you are
possessed by moving around on multiple directories
simultaneously, then<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><strong>directory
stacks</strong><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>under<span
class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><strong>Moving Again</strong><span
class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>section is worth
scanning. This functionality is saving dozens of my keystrokes
now. There is one entire division dedicated to various editors.
That section is not limited to<span
class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a
href="https://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/" style="color:
rgb(23, 86, 169); text-decoration: none;">GNU Emacs</a><span
class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>or<span
class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a
href="http://vim.org/" style="color: rgb(23, 86, 169);
text-decoration: none;">vim</a>, but also briefs<span
class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a
href="https://www.nano-editor.org/" style="color: rgb(23, 86,
169); text-decoration: none;">GNU NANO</a>,<span
class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a
href="http://www.kedit.com/" style="color: rgb(23, 86, 169);
text-decoration: none;">Kedit</a><span
class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>and<span
class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a
href="https://wiki.gnome.org/Apps/Gedit" style="color: rgb(23,
86, 169); text-decoration: none;">Gedit</a>. This section does
not compare the pros and cons of several editors, but describes
basics of each which should be counted as a good part. I skipped
this part because I am comfortable with<span
class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a
href="http://vim.org/" style="color: rgb(23, 86, 169);
text-decoration: none;">vim</a><span
class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>editor at present and
don’t want to invest much in others.</p>
<p style="margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; color: rgb(17, 17,
17); font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial,
sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal;
font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal;
font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2;
text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none;
white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;
-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(253, 253,
253);">The scripting section turned out to be the most
interesting division for me. Though I was aware about the tools
like<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a
href="https://www.gnu.org/software/sed/manual/sed.html"
style="color: rgb(23, 86, 169); text-decoration: none;">sed</a><span
class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>and language<span
class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a
href="https://linux.die.net/man/1/awk" style="color: rgb(23,
86, 169); text-decoration: none;">awk</a><span
class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>I was not using them
often. Reading their chapters and implementing mentioned
examples built little confidence in me. Now I am much
comfortable in utilizing them. The irregular<span
class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><strong>Regular
expressions</strong><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>are
everywhere. You should not pass over this section and pay
careful attention to various examples. It is worth to invest
your time in this segment.</p>
<p style="margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; color: rgb(17, 17,
17); font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial,
sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal;
font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal;
font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2;
text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none;
white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;
-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(253, 253,
253);">This is not the ending. This book presents a glimpse of
various scripting level programming languages like<span
class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a
href="https://www.perl.org/" style="color: rgb(23, 86, 169);
text-decoration: none;">Perl</a>,<span
class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a
href="http://python.org/" style="color: rgb(23, 86, 169);
text-decoration: none;">Python</a><span
class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>and<span
class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a
href="https://www.ruby-lang.org/en/" style="color: rgb(23, 86,
169); text-decoration: none;">Ruby</a>. Because I am a python
developer for a few years and I was not much interested in other
languages, I skipped this section. A shallow introduction to<span
class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a
href="https://www.gnu.org/software/octave/" style="color:
rgb(23, 86, 169); text-decoration: none;">GNU Octave</a><span
class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>is nice to study if you
are interested in knowing a little about this scientific
programming language.</p>
<h3 id="how-to-read-this-book" style="margin: 0px 0px 15px;
padding: 0px; font-weight: 400; font-size: 26px; color: rgb(17,
17, 17); font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica,
Arial, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures:
normal; font-variant-caps: normal; letter-spacing: normal;
orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform:
none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;
-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(253, 253,
253);">How to read this book?</h3>
<p style="margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; color: rgb(17, 17,
17); font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial,
sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal;
font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal;
font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2;
text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none;
white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;
-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(253, 253,
253);">Do not read to read. This book contains nice shell
examples. By merely reading, you will end up without bringing
about anything meaningful. I will advise you to interpret the
description first, observe the examples and then implement them
on your own. If you have any confusions, read the example and
description again or obtain help from<span
class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><code
class="highlighter-rouge" style="font-size: 15px; border: 1px
solid rgb(232, 232, 232); border-radius: 3px;
background-color: rgb(238, 238, 255); padding: 1px 5px;">man</code><span
class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>or<span
class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><code
class="highlighter-rouge" style="font-size: 15px; border: 1px
solid rgb(232, 232, 232); border-radius: 3px;
background-color: rgb(238, 238, 255); padding: 1px 5px;">info</code><span
class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>are the best options. To
remember, I revised the important chapters more than once in a
week. It helped me to refresh what I learned before. I will
attempt to re-read the important sections once again after a few
days to refresh my memory.</p>
<h3 id="what-is-missing" style="margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding:
0px; font-weight: 400; font-size: 26px; color: rgb(17, 17, 17);
font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial,
sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal;
font-variant-caps: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2;
text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none;
white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;
-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(253, 253,
253);">What is missing?</h3>
<p style="margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; color: rgb(17, 17,
17); font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial,
sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal;
font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal;
font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2;
text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none;
white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;
-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(253, 253,
253);">Considerably, the book is nicely written, equally
distributed and largely acceptable, but I would prefer to have a
small set exercises section at the end of each topic. Exercise
might help the reader to identify their weak points early and
refer on them again if they desire to.</p>
<h3 id="typo--mistakes" style="margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px;
font-weight: 400; font-size: 26px; color: rgb(17, 17, 17);
font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial,
sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal;
font-variant-caps: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2;
text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none;
white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;
-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(253, 253,
253);">Typo / Mistakes</h3>
<p style="margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; color: rgb(17, 17,
17); font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial,
sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal;
font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal;
font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2;
text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none;
white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;
-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(253, 253,
253);">I didn’t encounter any sever mistakes except one typo.
The section of<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><strong>Userful
customizations</strong><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>on
page number 80 of my printed version, contains following
example:</p>
<div class="highlighter-rouge" style="color: rgb(17, 17, 17);
font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial,
sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal;
font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal;
font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2;
text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none;
white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;
-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(253, 253,
253);">
<pre class="highlight" style="margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 8px 12px; font-size: 15px; border: 1px solid rgb(232, 232, 232); border-radius: 3px; background: rgb(238, 238, 255); overflow-x: auto;"><code style="font-size: 15px; border: 0px; border-radius: 3px; background-color: rgb(238, 238, 255); padding: 1px 0px;">function manyargs {
$arg=$1
shift
...
}
</code></pre>
</div>
<p style="margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; color: rgb(17, 17,
17); font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial,
sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal;
font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal;
font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2;
text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none;
white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;
-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(253, 253,
253);">Here,<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><strong>$arg</strong><span
class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>is a misprint. A shell
variable is never assigned with<span
class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><strong>$</strong>. It
should be<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><code
class="highlighter-rouge" style="font-size: 15px; border: 1px
solid rgb(232, 232, 232); border-radius: 3px;
background-color: rgb(238, 238, 255); padding: 1px 5px;">args=$1</code>.
I myself has corrected the typographical error in the book. This
change will be published maybe in the next release of this book.</p>
<p style="margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; color: rgb(17, 17,
17); font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial,
sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal;
font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal;
font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2;
text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none;
white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;
-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(253, 253,
253);">If you are encountering any mistakes while reading, I
request you to fix the change<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a
href="http://write.flossmanuals.net/command-line/introduction/"
style="color: rgb(23, 86, 169); text-decoration: none;">here</a>.
The interface for editing the book is beginner friendly. It took
less than 5 minutes to drive the change.</p>
<h3 id="where-to-buydownload" style="margin: 0px 0px 15px;
padding: 0px; font-weight: 400; font-size: 26px; color: rgb(17,
17, 17); font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica,
Arial, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures:
normal; font-variant-caps: normal; letter-spacing: normal;
orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform:
none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;
-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(253, 253,
253);">Where to buy/download?</h3>
<ul style="margin: 0px 0px 15px 30px; padding: 0px; color: rgb(17,
17, 17); font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica,
Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal;
font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal;
font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2;
text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none;
white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;
-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(253, 253,
253);">
<li>
<p style="margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px;"><a
href="https://shop.fsf.org/books-docs/introduction-command-line"
style="color: rgb(23, 86, 169); text-decoration: none;">Buy
printed version</a>.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p style="margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px;"><a
href="http://write.flossmanuals.net/command-line/introduction/"
style="color: rgb(23, 86, 169); text-decoration: none;">Read
Online</a>.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p style="margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px;"><a
href="http://archive.flossmanuals.net/_booki/command-line/command-line.pdf"
style="color: rgb(23, 86, 169); text-decoration: none;">Download
PDF</a></p>
</li>
</ul>
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