Hi, thanks for these explanations. 1. No, I can't read Braille. I am blind only for a year and a little. 2. Regarding the sync command. I've seen the core file in my home directory and I didn't know what is it. I've typed apropos core and it told me that that file contains the temporary information that will be put on the hard disk after a time. Then I've remembered the sync command that makes that and I've used it. However, nothing happend. No confirmation, no error message, but the core file was there on my directory after that command. So the command was not successfully. I am sure I was missing something. ... and the web server administrator told me not to play with his computer. To use mine for that. That's why I am afraid that I could make something wrong. Teddy, orasnita at home.ro ----- Original Message ----- From: "Ann Parsons" <akp@xxxxxxxxx> To: <speakup at braille.uwo.ca> Sent: Wednesday, May 22, 2002 2:52 PM Subject: Re: in defense of the command line > Hi all, > > <smile> OK, Teddy, this makes a lot of sense to me. Let me answer > you one question at a time. > > >>>>> "Octavian" == Octavian Rasnita <orasnita at home.ro> writes: > > Octavian> Hi, thanks. Nice explanation. I am not intimidate by > Octavian> the command lines. I am frightened by the idea of > Octavian> breaking something. > > Yes, it is OK to be a little afraid of your computer. However, unlike > in Windows, if you type a wrong command, you will not crash your > system, or at least not usually. > > Octavian> Maybe I type rm fILE instead of rm > Octavian> File and I could delete another file. And I don't know > Octavian> the undelete command. > > Well, I have two suggestions here. One, when you type a command, use > your arrow keys to go over what you type and make sure that is what > you wanted to type before you hit the enter key. You can also use the > cut and paste feature in emacs to take a command from a file and plunk > it right in the shell where you want to give the command. Do you know > about the emacs shell. You just type m-x shell and you're in a shell > buffer. You can do all the normal commands from in there. > Unfortunately, once you type rm filename, it's gone. There is no way > to recover it. However, I'll tell you a secret, Teddy. When you > write in Emacs, whenever you save a file, it makes a backup file. For > example, if you name a file test.txt and you write in it, and then, > you save it, Emacs makes a copy of that file called text.txt~ If you > remove test.txt by mistake, so long as you have saved that file in > emacs, you will have test.txt~ as a backup, and you can type: cp > test.txt~ test.txt and you will have your file. It may not have > everything in it that the first file had, depending on how long ago > you saved it, but it will at least have most of your data. In fact, > if you *really* want to delete a file you've created in emacs, you > have to delete the main file and its backup. Otherwise you will be > left with a bunch of backup files in your directory. > > Question? Have you discovered the command m-x dired? You can > undelete files from within dired if you want to use it. Type: > > m-x man > > and when it asked you what you want, type: > > dired > > Read about dired. dired is your friend! I love dired! Oh, BTW, it's > pronounced dir`ed. It means directory edit, I think. > > Octavian> The most used command by me is > Octavian> pwd, to be sure that I am in the right directory, and > Octavian> ls, to see the files from there. > > Yes, this is good, but if you put a dired listing of your current > directory in one of your buffers, you will not have to list the files > any more. You can... no, you read about dired. I'm not going to tell > you all the things dired can do. > > Octavian> The other problem I > Octavian> have is that I don't remember very easy the parameters. > Octavian> I usually remember the command name but I can't remember > Octavian> if I should use the -L parameter or the -l parameter. > Octavian> I've seen that for some commands, the same parameter > Octavian> make the same thing, but for other commands that > Octavian> parameter make another thing. If I remember well, it is > Octavian> the case of -R parameter, but I don't remember exactly > Octavian> in what commands makes what. > > Teddy, do you read braille? If you do, then write what in English is > called a "cheat-sheet". This is a paper that has on it all the > commands you use all the time in braille. You write down the > perameters, then, when you need to use the command, you find your > braille list, and you look on it and read what you need. After a > while, you'll remember. Think, think, do not just say, "I have a > problem. I have a problem." Think! Reason! God gave you a mind, use > it! > > Octavian> Another problem, and maybe here I can make something to > Octavian> improve, is that after I give a command like sync, it > Octavian> doesn't tell me if the command was successfully or not, > Octavian> and I don't know what to do. I typed that command from > Octavian> another account than root, and it didn't tell me > Octavian> anything. It didn't tell me if the command was > Octavian> successfully or not or if I have the right to type that > Octavian> command from another account than root. > > <smile> Linux is like an old gruff teacher who never praises you when > you do something right, she only yells at you when you do something > wrong. If you type a command and you get the prompt back; it doesn't > tell you anything, that means that you've done it right. Linux will > only yell at you when you do something wrong. It never praises you, > only criticizes. One nice thing is that Linux will at least give you > understandable errors, not criptic ones like Windows does. If you do > something wrong, Teddy, Linux will let you know and it will tell you > what you did and why it is wrong. > > Ann P. > > -- > Ann K. Parsons > email: akp at eznet.net ICQ Number: 33006854 > WEB SITE: http://home.eznet.net/~akp > "All that is gold does not glitter. Not all those who wander are lost." JRRT > > > > _______________________________________________ > Speakup mailing list > Speakup at braille.uwo.ca > http://speech.braille.uwo.ca/mailman/listinfo/speakup >
