Ittcl

Introduction to the Command Line (2nd ed.)

Introduction to the Command Line is a popular free book (released under the GPL version 2) that introduces the use of standard Unix and GNU command-line tools to people who are new to the command line. The Bash shell, editors, simple text manipulation, and basic programming are discussed. The book was written in the mid-2000s and needs an update for the way people are working today.

The Free Software Foundation (FSF), in conjunction with FLOSS Manuals, wrote this book originally and is now coordinating the update. This wiki discusses how volunteers can help, and lists proposed changes we are considering in the second edition.

Writers

Please add yourself here if you want to write new material. In line with current diversity efforts across the free software world and computer industry, we encourage women and non-white contributors to join. Include here

• Your name
• Topic you want to write about (Python, Git, Jupyter, or other)
• Two or three sentences about your expertise
• Summary of writing or teaching experience in the area you want to write about
• Pointers to other relevant information, such as your code repository, curriculum vitae, or web page

We need only one person per topic, because collaborations rarely work well. We will vote on writers on our mailing list.

What to do

The current draft is on the FLOSS Manuals site. Contact Andy Oram (andyo at praxagor.com) to offer your help as a writer or reviewer.

Volunteers are coordinating their work on this wiki page. You can sign up for an account at the LibrePlanet wiki page and join the discussion.

The FSF recommends these guidelines for discussion.

Things to do to help include:

• Read parts of the book
• Try out parts on your computer and write notes in the book or on this page about problems such as:
  • Outdated instructions, where better methods exist to accomplish the same goal.
  • Important missing topics. (But remember that this book is only an introduction, and we want to keep it short by avoiding complex, advanced topics.)
  • Errors.
  • Confusing text.
• Add new topics to this wiki for the book. Again, please remember that we want to keep the book's length about the same. You can also suggest topics in the book that we could remove.

And tell your friends about this project!

Proposed changes

The following ideas for changes have been proposed so far. We do not want to make the book longer, though.

Major additions are:

• New Python chapter
• Git
• Jupyter

Only one language is needed in the book. Python has won out due to simplicity and popularity, so we will remove Perl, Ruby, and GNU Octave.

We need to choose one or two text editors to write about. There are two many chapters currently on editors, and some can be reduced to brief mentions. Proposed editors to focus on are:

• Nano. Quick to learn, ubiquitous on free systems, and popular. However, not as powerful as Vim or Emacs.
• Vim. By far the most popular text editor, and one you can grow into and make a part of your work everywhere.
• Emacs. The classic editor offered by the FSF (and before), but nowhere near as popular as Vim.
• Gedit graphical editor

Other suggested changes include:

• Add a one-page quick-ref sheet to chapters on key tools.
• Consider Visual Bash
• Mention IDEs but do not cover any.
• FTP and Rsync. (Mention telnet but recommend against its use.)
• Along with screen, mention Tmux, Byobu.
• Point to more web resources.
• Drop the discussion of file descriptors (beyond 0, 1, 2) as too advanced. Add the <(command) feature as an alternative to piping.
• Motivate the reader by describing common tasks and applying command-line tools to solving these tasks.
• Try to find a unifying project, such as collaborative document or web page editing. This project could involve Git and Markdown.
• Mention Microsoft's support for bash and other common Unix tools, to bring in a new readership.
• grep is a good tool to introduce early--not in its full-fledged regular-expression syntax, but just as a way to search for something on your system.
• Markdown, useful for editing wikis.