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What should I call these simple commands?
I want to write a tutorial on shell commands* for beginners, and I want to emphasize really really really easy stuff. So I need some nice snappy names for some easy stuff. Maybe these names already exist. Maybe I'll have to coin something.
1. What do you call one of those really simple command that follows the syntax:
command url
You know what I mean, right? Of course you do.
firefox http://justlinux.com
xmms ~/music/Beatles/Let_it_Be.ogg
emacs ~/.fluxbox/menu
This sort of command isn't usually used at the CLI itself, but it's invaluble for creating desktop launchers, keyboard shortcuts, and menu items. If I think of every click on my preprogrammed menu, and every stroke of a keybinding as a separate command, this syntax of shell command is by far the most common for me. Is there a name for it? There ought to be.
And what do you call a script that is just a simple list of commands? There ought to be a name for that, too.
*That's "shell commands", and not just "the command line". Part of my message is that, for the desktop user, shell commands are useful in places other than the command line, also in scripts and to program your GUI. Every desktop environment and Window manager I know has a place where an easy shell command can be inserted to be activated later by a click or a keystroke.
Last edited by blackbelt_jones; 08-06-2008 at 12:55 AM.
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I don't think there is a special name for running commands in that manner. I mean, thats really just the way many commands are run. Typically unix commands go something like
command [arguments] [flags]
You just aren't using any flags. Which is, i think, pretty common. Which is why there probably isn't another name for it. You're just running a command.
As far as a script thats a simple list of commands, i really hate to use the same argument, but its really the same argument pretty much. All scripts are some list of commands, possibly with some logic(which one could probably consider a "command"). If you don't have any logic or anything its still just a script.
but really, i dont know what im talking about.
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Pretty straightforward ....why bother?
Linux Shell Scripting Tutorial v1.05r3 - A Beginner's handbook
http://www.cyberciti.biz/nixcraft/li...features/lsst/
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Originally Posted by JohnT
One thing that I should have mentioned explicitly is that the kind of command I'm talking about involves a graphical application. This is what makes this category of command unique. I've been thinking about this for a long time, but only as I try to put it into words here does this important distinction come into focus.
While from the point of view of the software, there may not be much of a difference, I think there may be an educational benefit from creating an artibitrary category of command. For the GUI oriented desktop-user, I think it's a great place to start learning shell commands.
It's easy to grasp how a desktop application and a media file work together
It illustrates that the command line and the GUI desktop are partners, not competitiors. People have a 1980s view of the GUI and the CLI as competitors. Whenever I try to tell people about the power of the command line, almost always they react as if I had told them to give up the GUI entirely. They start telling me about the benefits of the GUI, as if that was ever in doubt. If I had to choose between all GUI all the time, and all CLI all the time, I too would probably chose the GUI, but that's a false choice. It's not about one tool being better than another, it's about two tools being better than one tool.
This kind of shell command has desktop applications. It doesn't usually make a lot of practical sense to open graphical desktop apps at the command line . That's what the desktop is for-- however, this kind of command is great for creating a powerful custom desktop. This is how I create my menus and keybindings in fluxbox, and it can be used in Gnome to create Desktop launchers, or what is known as a "Link to an application" in KDE. It can be used to great advantage to create launchers and keybindings in XFCE, and KDE now has an input action dialog that doesn't seem to work very well (or maybe I don't understand it?) but it'll be working eventually.
So here is something that you can teach a desktop user in about five minutes that will introduce them to the concept of shell commands and show them how shell commands fit into the Desktop. And it's tremendously important. Like I said, as a fluxbox user, I probably use this type of command with nearly every click.
Last edited by blackbelt_jones; 08-11-2008 at 01:44 PM.
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Here's what I have come up with, an arbitrary name for purely educational purposes.
A Type One Command has one part and no options. for example:
reboot
firefox
A Type Two Command has two parts ( a command and an arguement) and no options.
firefox http://justlinux.com
kwrite ~/.fluxbox/menu
These commands are really important in Desktop use and super easy to understand. By isolating and teaching them seperately, my intent would be to give the newcomer a quick start to learning how the cli works. Shell commands have a natural syntax, not unlike human language. This demonstrates that syntax in it's simplest form, and everything else builds on that.
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I don't think you should introduce new names, because the newbie that searches the internet will only be more confused, because he doesn't read about them anywhere else.
You just have commands, and some of them need parameters, and some of them can be used with parameters or without.
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Somebody has to bring something new to Linux education. Hopefully, someone other than me will have better ideas.
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For your second question, I call a list of commands that need to run sequentially a script and more particularly in Linux a bash script (though it might not always be true, it usually is in the beginning). I consider it slightly different than a full blown "program" even if it technically could be considered one. Just has a different feel for me.
As for the first question... I'm not exactly sure. If I were to make up something, I'd consider something along the lines of "goLocation" because the explicit command to an application is kind of like a motion and the first argument is the destination you want to reach once you actually go.
Haha otherwise I'm not sure of anything "official."
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Obviously, when you're making up your own terms, it's important to say so, right up front, and bold text wouldn't hurt.
For a script that is a list of commands, I have taken to calling these "dum-dum scripts", which ought to further drive home the point in the unlikely event that 1) anyone actually reads this and 2) I actually write this in the first place.
Last edited by blackbelt_jones; 08-24-2008 at 01:42 PM.
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Originally Posted by blackbelt_jones
Obviously, when you're making up your own terms, it's important to say so, right up front, and bold text wouldn't hurt.
For a script that is a list of commands, I have taken to calling these "dum-dum scripts", which ought to further drive home the point in the unlikely event that 1) anyone actually reads this and 2) I actually write this in the first place.
I'll remember the bold text for next time around
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