Review: FLOSS Manuals' Introduction to the Command Line
![](/var/linux_magazin/storage/images/online/blogs/off-the-beat-bruce-byfield-s-blog/318120-13-eng-US/Off-the-Beat-Bruce-Byfield-s-Blog.png)
Off the Beat: Bruce Byfield's Blog
As a full-time writer, I'm skeptical of collaboration. I have collaborated, with varying degrees of success, but the process has always seemed too time-consuming to justify the results. Still, having just submitted my first command line column for Linux Pro Magazine, I was curious to see the results of the FLOSS Manuals' sprint to produce a book entitled during last week at the Free Software Foundation's (FSF's) LibrePlanet conference. And, having done so, I think I'll have to reconsider my position on writing collaborations. While the result of the sprint is not perfect, it is certainly no worse than many books written by a single writer.
LibrePlanet is the collection of speeches and workshops that surrounds the FSF's annual general meeting. The idea has been growing for at least a couple of years, but this was the first year in which the proceedings were actually given a name and advertised. The book sprint attracted at least five people working at the conference and an unspecified number of remote contributors, and, although the book was not quite finished during the weekend, enough was done that in the week since the gaps have been largely filled.
The Pros
The first thing I noticed about the book was its readability. Unlike many books about technical subject, this one is not written in the academic dialect, but some one that approaches spoken English. Sentences of under a dozen words are common. The tone tends to be casual without much of the wordiness that usually creeps in when efforts at casualness are made.
Just as importantly, the contributors seem to be keeping the audience -- presumably, those new to the command line -- in mind, another challenge that defeats most writers on technical subjects. Too often, writers forget that their readers lack their expertise, and lack any sense of what needs to be explained. By contrast, Introduction to the Command Line is explicit about what it is doing. For example, the opening pages define a command as "a file that can be executed," and describe white space as "blanks and tabs -- things that show up white on paper." With the same clarity, directories are described as "containers of files."
Along with this clarity comes a refreshing frankness. The introduction assumes, probably correctly, that its readers will usually be opening a command line, saying bluntly that only system administrators are likely to otherwise these days. Then, after proceeding to explain how to open a virtual terminal in Ubuntu (probably not the FSF's preferred distribution to use as a reference point, but perhaps justified on the grounds of popularity), the introduction admits that the terminal doesn't give you much help at first glance. "You're expected to know what to do -- and well show you," the introduction explains.
Similarly, when talking about the output of ls from the root directory, the manual is careful to say, "You may see some files or directories in your root directory not discussed here. For now you only need to be concerned with one directory: your home directory. . . . Most of the time you don't need to know about the directory structure outside your home directory, but this knowledge occasionally comes in handy." What readers might wonder about is almost always carefully anticipated and voiced, and what the manual expects of readers is, as well.
The Cons
Unsurprisingly, considering the conditions under which the book was drafted, these virtues are not found throughout the book. Once or twice, contributors are unable to resist indulging in their own cleverness, as when the section on directories begins with, "Willie Sutton robbed banks because that's where the money is, and we'll examine directories here because that's where the files are" -- a reference that presumably sounded clever or humorous to the writer, but which almost everyone under seventy is likely to miss unless they quickly scurry over to Wikipedia.
More importantly, the continuity is sometimes lacking in the current draft. The large sections, which were drawn up beforehand, follow a logical order from the simplest concepts to the more advanced, but, within the sections, why one sub-heading follows another could frequently be clearer. But, given the multiple authorship, this problem is not surprising, and, can probably be overcome by a single editor going through the draft looking at nothing but continuity.
Another problem with the book is that the final section on scripting in various languages such as Ruby or Python is far too short. The section does not do anything beyond giving readers a few tricks. Meanwhile a sense of how the languages operate is largely omitted. For this reason, the scripting section is the one part of the book that could use expansion and more thought.
Conclusion
Introduction to the Command Line is not a finished work. In fact, its writing tends to get rougher the further you read, as though the first parts are the ones that have received the most attention so far. However, many parts of the book have been improved in the last week, and the improvements will undoubtedly continue. By the time the limited edition hardcopy version is released on April 6th, the text promises to be a good, brief introduction to a subject that is too often ignored in this age of the desktop.
If you've been thinking of brushing up on your language of the command line, or know somebody else who needs to do so, then Introduction to the Command Line is a painless and informative place to start, and proof that collaboration is no worse that single-authorship. And, while on the site, you might also want to look at FLOSS Manuals' other titles while on the site.
Comments
comments powered by DisqusSubscribe to our Linux Newsletters
Find Linux and Open Source Jobs
Subscribe to our ADMIN Newsletters
Support Our Work
Linux Magazine content is made possible with support from readers like you. Please consider contributing when you’ve found an article to be beneficial.
![Learn More](https://www.linux-magazine.com/var/linux_magazin/storage/images/media/linux-magazine-eng-us/images/misc/learn-more/834592-1-eng-US/Learn-More_medium.png)
News
-
NVIDIA Released Driver for Upcoming NVIDIA 560 GPU for Linux
Not only has NVIDIA released the driver for its upcoming CPU series, it's the first release that defaults to using open-source GPU kernel modules.
-
OpenMandriva Lx 24.07 Released
If you’re into rolling release Linux distributions, OpenMandriva ROME has a new snapshot with a new kernel.
-
Kernel 6.10 Available for General Usage
Linus Torvalds has released the 6.10 kernel and it includes significant performance increases for Intel Core hybrid systems and more.
-
TUXEDO Computers Releases InfinityBook Pro 14 Gen9 Laptop
Sporting either AMD or Intel CPUs, the TUXEDO InfinityBook Pro 14 is an extremely compact, lightweight, sturdy powerhouse.
-
Google Extends Support for Linux Kernels Used for Android
Because the LTS Linux kernel releases are so important to Android, Google has decided to extend the support period beyond that offered by the kernel development team.
-
Linux Mint 22 Stable Delayed
If you're anxious about getting your hands on the stable release of Linux Mint 22, it looks as if you're going to have to wait a bit longer.
-
Nitrux 3.5.1 Available for Install
The latest version of the immutable, systemd-free distribution includes an updated kernel and NVIDIA driver.
-
Debian 12.6 Released with Plenty of Bug Fixes and Updates
The sixth update to Debian "Bookworm" is all about security mitigations and making adjustments for some "serious problems."
-
Canonical Offers 12-Year LTS for Open Source Docker Images
Canonical is expanding its LTS offering to reach beyond the DEB packages with a new distro-less Docker image.
-
Plasma Desktop 6.1 Released with Several Enhancements
If you're a fan of Plasma Desktop, you should be excited about this new point release.
Hardcopy now scheduled to after 10th of June, 2009