What you need may be “pipeline +Unix commands” only

Re:What you need may be “pipeline +Unix commands” only by lapnitnelav on Sunday March 03, 2019 @07:35AM (#19294165)

I think it's mostly a matter of chance more than anything else.

If you've jumped straight into programming, you'll probably consider any of those problems as a nail to your C/JS/Java/Python Hammer.

I was lucky to be initiated to the GNU / UNIX toolset by operation folks when doing tech support in a SAAS biz. We were dealing with a lot of text files and it didn't feel right to offload whatever my problem was to them, so I started learning from them and the scripts they wrote.

Mostly trivial stuff, such as in a directory, only select the relevant files, iterate through them to sum up something or find exactly the bit of information you need.

This allowed me to decrease time spent looking for the answer to my current case or colleague's case.

Of course, I then built those functionalities into a .bashrc (or was it bash_profile?) script to help my fellow support folks finding the answer on their own..

Turns out, most people don't want to have anything to do with a command prompt, even if the hard part has been done for you. That's been a pretty good lesson BTW.

Fast forward a few years later to now and I'm realising a good amount of stuff I've been writing lately could potentially be GNU'd instead of writing a Python script.

So that's how it goes I guess.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:What you need may be “pipeline +Unix commands” only by wildmindwriting on Sunday March 03, 2019 @08:01AM (#19294240)

I have also found this to be the case too. Most people would rather have a GUI before even touching the command line. Most notably is Git; every single one of my developers use Sourcetree and if I have to help them with something, I always have to pop open the terminal. It's gotten to the point where I'm considered "odd" because I use the command line. It's become a running joke among everyone.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:What you need may be “pipeline +Unix commands” only by radiator on Sunday March 03, 2019 @08:35AM (#19294355)

I don't see how this can be a target of their joke: they have problems with their GUI (I am assuming that's what Sourcetree is), you solve them with your CLI. If they want to laugh, they 'd better fix their own problems themselves, I guess?

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:What you need may be “pipeline +Unix commands” only by 4thaccount on Sunday March 03, 2019 @09:40AM (#19294621)

They probably respect his knowledge and know he is the only competent one, but they simply don't care to learn the CLI method as they are lazy, or can't justify all the time it takes to learn it if he is there to fix their problems (more efficient). I've been on both sides of that situation before. There is always an expert in something you want to know, but can't justify the time. So don't take it too hard on them. I support a Linux based app at work and thus got pretty comfortable with the command line (vim, grep, awk, head, tail, cut, sort, ls, cp, top, cat...etc). To my knowledge I'm the only one in engineering with this knowledge (not in IT support). I also notice my fellow engineers will frequently use more complicated techniques for something that is a single piped command for me. I don't fault them for it though as they have no need to use Linux.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:What you need may be “pipeline +Unix commands” only by nothrabannosir on Sunday March 03, 2019 @10:25AM (#19294845)

Jokes can be light-hearted and inclusive.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:What you need may be “pipeline +Unix commands” only by type0 on Sunday March 03, 2019 @09:32AM (#19294592)

> It's gotten to the point where I'm considered "odd" because I use the command line. It's become a running joke among everyone.

Well, the joke is on them for choosing to only stick to the GUI.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:What you need may be “pipeline +Unix commands” only by oarabbus_ on Sunday March 03, 2019 @04:02PM (#19296840)

>It's gotten to the point where I'm considered "odd" because I use the command line. It's become a running joke among everyone.

That's... very bizarre. Amongst the engineers I work with it's always an "oh cool, you know how to use bash/terminal" rather than "weird, why are you using terminal".

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:What you need may be “pipeline +Unix commands” only by edoloughlin on Sunday March 03, 2019 @11:03AM (#19295072)

it's gotten to the point where I'm considered "odd" because I use the command line

Me too. I'm thinking of doing a presentation on the Dunning-Kruger effect to see if it sparks some introspection in my colleagues.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:What you need may be “pipeline +Unix commands” only by mooreds on Sunday March 03, 2019 @08:55AM (#19294432)

> Turns out, most people don't want to have anything to do with a command prompt, even if the hard part has been done for you. That's been a pretty good lesson BTW.

My experience has been that some folks are resistant to the command line (but I wouldn't say most). This is too bad because I feel like it's a crucial part of development. I even wrote a post about it: https://letterstoanewdeveloper.com/2019/02/04/learn-the-comm...

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:What you need may be “pipeline +Unix commands” only by lapnitnelav on Sunday March 03, 2019 @12:26PM (#19295579)

In my specific case, it wasn't dev profiles but people on a spectrum going from I grok tech stuff to only browsing and the office suite.

So obviously, whenever I started doing trainings on how to use the cli / the toolkit, I could see what is best described as mild panic. Which I get, CLI isn't inviting at all, it's pretty daunting, there's no real emphasis on safety (as in not breaking anything), it's far from being easy to reason with when you're used to the Windows / GUI world.

The lesson was not so much about the prompt and more about understanding your target audience and catering to them really.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:What you need may be “pipeline +Unix commands” only by mooreds on Sunday March 03, 2019 @12:29PM (#19295590)

Ah, that makes sense. Yes, understanding your audience and meeting them where they are (or maybe just a bit closer to where you want them to get to) is always very important.

[ Parent | on HN ]