The Importance of Command Line Literacy
The oldest interface is still one of the best. Learning about shells and utilities can pay off for jobs where they’re the fastest or most flexible.
Thursday, October 2nd, 2008
Have you sat down with that grey-haired system administrator and watched what’s happening as her (or his) fingers fly over the keyboard? Ever wondered why they’re still Stuck In The Stone Age, typing text instead of using the obviously easier mouse and menus? Suspect that person is a geezer who can’t learn new techniques?
Maybe they did learn Linux (actually, Unix) before everyone had windows on a monitor. But there’s a reason why they keep a terminal window (or ten) open on their desktops: this is a power platform that can be the fastest way to work. It remembers what you’ve done (so it’s easy to repeat and/or modify), has built-in programmability (need a loop? no worries!), and gives you full access to the library of hundreds of Linux utility programs that were designed for just this environment. A terminal and utilities do jobs that a GUI can’t touch.
Less power than your wristwatch
The Linux command line was born around the time Linus Torvalds drew his first breath: in the days of small Unix systems with tiny amounts of memory. Back then, a tty was a teletype — those clattering machines that also sent and received telegrams over 110-baud lines. Using Unix meant typing on a keyboard and waiting for the (often-busy) system to respond. Every byte and CPU cycle were precious. The Unix command line evolved to help people cope with this environment.
