The UNIX way
UNIX history embeds the UNIX way with the notion of software tools, also the title of a work by UNIX gurus Brian Kernighan and P.J.Plauger, as key concept; small, well designed text-based tools operating from the command line which do one job very well and can readily be connected to satisfy more complex tasks. UNIX software tools, each with multiple options, can thus be considered as building blocks, allowing for a vast number of combinations of commands, creating programmatic structures which can well outdo the possibilities of any GUI.
By way of the central notion of the shell, our command line interface to the OS and these software tools, we are not so much programmed by a conditioning and so called intuitive graphical interface, we are rather programming. As soon as we put two commands together, connected by way of the ubiquitous pipes of UNIX, we are coding; we've made the jump from slave of the mouse towards customised automation, the promise of computation belied by the desktop.
It's an exciting major step towards coding our own environment. Commands can be bundled, then programmed either interactively or by way of shell scripts, again with a dizzying array of possibilities and options. Indeed, the sheer range of common UNIX commands, with an emphasis on textual manipulation, alongside the interactive possibilities of the shell, within which we can manipulate our own command history, our working past, to great effect, can prove quite simply too overwhelming. Alongside key knowledge of active help facilities, redirection and piping, a short rundown of the top ten UNIX/GNU Linux commands, worthy of attention from any OS naturalist, should assist.
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