[Tutor] What are all those letters after terminal commands?

[Alan Gauld]

On 23/08/12 22:14, William R. Wing (Bill Wing) wrote:

> While all that is true, I'm pretty sure she is going to need enough knowledge
 > of the simplest -NIX commands to
> edit .py files,
 > rename them occasionally,
> organize them into appropriate directories
 > and occasionally change a permission or two

But all of that can be done via the MacOS Finder and for
most casual Python programmers on a MAC that's all they need.

> I agree that she may never need to do shell programming
 > (OS-X uses bash), but knowing the basics WILL be needed.

The basics can all be done via the GUI. Knowing the shell alternatives 
will likely make her more productive but won't be essential. Whether the 
extra productivity merits the time invested in learning will
be a matter of circumstance.

As somebody once said "GUIs make easy things trivial and hard things 
impossible"

But most scientific Python programming doesn't require any "hard 
things", at least, not in terms of OS manipulation.

-- 
Alan G
Author of the Learn to Program web site
http://www.alan-g.me.uk/