Building a New Skill Takes Time and Directed Effort: a Practice Plan for Learning the Command LineDianne Dietrich(3),
Brian Dietz(1),
[Matthew] Farrell(2)
1: NC State University Libraries, United States of America; 2: Duke University Libraries, United States of America; 3: Cornell University Library, United States of America While there is no shortage of resources for learning the command line, it can be challenging to put new knowledge into consistent practice. This workshop proposes techniques for incorporating CLI practice into everyday tasks. The purpose is to solidify core skills so they become automatic, ultimately to help learners advance.
More information and pre-work from the presenters:We’re excited to see you for our workshop,
Building a new skill takes time and directed effort: a practice plan for learning the command line. Our workshop might be a bit different from other introductory command line workshops you may have attended, so we are sharing some information to best help you decide if this is for you.
First, given time and registration constraints, this workshop will be largely discussion-based. We will go over an approach we find helpful in learning and internalizing a new skill, but we are interested in understanding two things: what are your goals in gaining command line proficiency, and what currently holds you back from where you want to be. If you plan on attending this workshop, please spend a few minutes reflecting on these two topics. It will help make the discussion as rich as possible.
Although we won’t spend our hour together all typing commands into a terminal, we will be asking for commands/tasks to perform in demonstration. We will also go through a systematic troubleshooting dialog to help identify the things that go wrong and how to parse the error message(s) in order toamend the command to reach the desired outcome.
The approach we’ve adopted for this workshop is platform agnostic–our goal is to help you establish a command line routine regardless of how you choose to use it. We will be working in bash or bash-like environments, but your own computing environment may employ a different shell with its own command line syntax. The handout linked below includes links for Windows users who may want to deploy a bash or bash-like shell.
Resources that we think will be helpful for you in preparing for the workshop include:
