From 61b8455f7b830893bf2158c387319126fd36a87b Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Mark Piper Date: Tue, 21 Jul 2020 17:57:23 -0600 Subject: [PATCH] Add content to lesson start --- lessons/shell/index.md | 30 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++--- 1 file changed, 27 insertions(+), 3 deletions(-) diff --git a/lessons/shell/index.md b/lessons/shell/index.md index 8d6f09a..232af8c 100644 --- a/lessons/shell/index.md +++ b/lessons/shell/index.md @@ -24,14 +24,38 @@ Unpack them on your computer. ### Open a terminal A terminal is an application that allows a user to communicate -with the operating system on a computer. +with the operating system of a computer +through terse text commands. -### Why are we using a terminal? +* Linux: terminal +* macOS: Terminal.app (built-in) or [iTerm.app](https://www.iterm2.com/) (better) +* Windows: Git Bash Shell in [Git for Windows](https://gitforwindows.org/) -Why would you want to use a terminal over a graphical application? +At this time, +if you haven't already done so, +open a terminal on your computer. + +### Why are we using a terminal instead of Finder or Windows Explorer? + +When you develop skill with shell commands in a terminal, +you can do filesystem-specific tasks--moving, copying, renaming, deleting +files and directories--much faster than with a graphical application. + +By analogy, think of keyboard shortcuts on your computer: +if you want to change from one application to another, +it's much faster to hit `Cmd-Tab` (on macOS; `Alt-Tab` on Linux and Windows) +than it is to use a mouse to go find the other application. + +Commands tend to be terse to the point of being cryptic, +not that different from texting shorthand: +instead of brb, it's `cd`; +instead of irl, it's `rm`, etc. +And it's done for the same reason: speed. ### The command prompt + + ## Sections 1. [Files and directories](./files-and-directories.md)