Thu Apr 01 04:41:07 1999
Subject: Re: New Job



> Actually - any suggestions for getting up to speed on UNIX-speak *greatly*
> appreciated.  This from someone who uses her shell account and that's about
> all.


the books suggested by other folks are good, but you can't really be a true
unix geek without a copy of _The Unix Hater's Handbook_.   the foreward by 
Dennis Ritchie, which is somthing like two pages of eloquent and eriudite
prose.. and can be reduced very literally to the words "eat **** and die"..
shows the kind of humor that's built into the thing at its very core.

there's a very strong cultural component to unix.. there are a hundred
(at barest minimum) different text editors out there, but if you don't know
vi or emacs you'll be branded as a luser.   worst of all is the sin of 
dissing vi in favor of pico.. even to an emacs partisan.. and i don't 
even want to think what would happen to a pico fan who dissed emacs.
lightning bolt, probably.. God is about the only entity in the universe
that actually knows all the emacs commands, and probably uses vi just to 
be contrary.  ;-)


a friend of mine used to love to wind me up by sequentially asking me 
whether unix was an operating system of a programming language.   there
are valid arguments for and against in each direction, and he just liked
seeing me argue both of them at once.   the truth is, it's a floor wax 
*and* a dessert topping.. it's also a culture, and a community, much like
the 'net.

the best way to learn about a culture is to visit, and observe the locals
perform the quaint and curious rituals that make up their day-to-day lives.
unix is no different.   dive in and work out as much as you can on your 
own, disdaining no source of possible information, but also talk to the 
other people who live & work there.   ask questions, let everyone know how
proud you are of *finally* having mastered some basic skill, and generally
make noise.   we've all done the same, and we all know how fragile and 
limited our own current level of knowledge really is.   to truly understand
unix, you have to learn to be a six-month newbie talking to the five- and
ten-year newbies.

welcome.. share and enjoy.