Welcome to UNIX!
I taught computer classes at my community college for eight years. Every semester the hardest thing by far to try to teach my students was file management. I always wondered why I could never teach them to even come close to navigating through Windows directories with my blazing speed as I effortlessly opened directories, copied files from one directory to another, made shortcuts, selected files, deleted files, ad nauseum. I have to admit that I have been working with personal computers since 1984 and that I have used every flavor of PC-based operating system from MS-DOS through Windows XP. That helps.
At least I thought I knew how to negotiate file directories until I started taking an online class in Perl. I had already worked my way through over 100 pages of the Dummies Guide to Perl and I thought the language was very easy to learn to program. I downloaded Perl 5.8 from the Web and installed it on my laptop. I made a directory on the C drive to hold my Perl scripts, typed my scripts in a text editor, and ran them from the command prompt. Very simple stuff. I thought the Perl class would be a breeze.
Welcome to UNIX, the favorite operating system of hard-core geeks! In my online class we make a connection to the UNIX server through Telnet, open the UNIX Pico editor and type our programs, save them, use chmod to set file permissions so we can open our files, navigate to the subdirectory we save our files in, and run the scripts.
This sounds much easier than it is. A Perl script has to be stored in a subdirectory you have to navigate to by following this path: /usr/local/bin/local/perl. To save a file, instead of using the ancient keyboard shortcut, Ctrl + C, you use Ctrl + o. To exit the Pico editor, you have to type Ctrl + X. I thought this command was used to cut text--not in UNIX.
To cut text you use Ctrl + k. To set the file permissions you type "$ chmod 755 filename". Once you actually get into programming in Perl, you learn that the language shares lots of things with other languages such as C++. If you know how to use variables, program loops, conditional statements, etc., it is a pretty easy language to learn. Perl's ability to handle anything you need to do in text files, retieve information from databases, etc., is truly impressive. If you have had to write C++ commands to manipulate text you will really appreciate Perl!
I could go on and on and on, but since you are asleep now if you have read this much of this boring post, I'll shut up and let you finish your nap.
At least I thought I knew how to negotiate file directories until I started taking an online class in Perl. I had already worked my way through over 100 pages of the Dummies Guide to Perl and I thought the language was very easy to learn to program. I downloaded Perl 5.8 from the Web and installed it on my laptop. I made a directory on the C drive to hold my Perl scripts, typed my scripts in a text editor, and ran them from the command prompt. Very simple stuff. I thought the Perl class would be a breeze.
Welcome to UNIX, the favorite operating system of hard-core geeks! In my online class we make a connection to the UNIX server through Telnet, open the UNIX Pico editor and type our programs, save them, use chmod to set file permissions so we can open our files, navigate to the subdirectory we save our files in, and run the scripts.
This sounds much easier than it is. A Perl script has to be stored in a subdirectory you have to navigate to by following this path: /usr/local/bin/local/perl. To save a file, instead of using the ancient keyboard shortcut, Ctrl + C, you use Ctrl + o. To exit the Pico editor, you have to type Ctrl + X. I thought this command was used to cut text--not in UNIX.
To cut text you use Ctrl + k. To set the file permissions you type "$ chmod 755 filename". Once you actually get into programming in Perl, you learn that the language shares lots of things with other languages such as C++. If you know how to use variables, program loops, conditional statements, etc., it is a pretty easy language to learn. Perl's ability to handle anything you need to do in text files, retieve information from databases, etc., is truly impressive. If you have had to write C++ commands to manipulate text you will really appreciate Perl!
I could go on and on and on, but since you are asleep now if you have read this much of this boring post, I'll shut up and let you finish your nap.
posted by Jimmy in the Hills | Thursday, October 05, 2006
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