Yes, there's other tools that can make terminal output prettier on Linux. We all know that. But the "column" command is likely already there, on your system, waiting for you to use it. With "column...
  • AnUnusualRelic@lemmy.world
    5·
    8 hours ago

    When I first learned Unix (and then Linux) I just went through /usr/bin and looked at the man page for everything.

    Then I browsed through the gnu info pages for bash.

    There’s no real alternative to RTFM.

  • BananaTrifleViolin@lemmy.worldEnglish
    11·
    1 day ago

    This was a new one for me and I’ve been playing with linux for years. Also really enjoyed her video style so delved into some others.

    Thanks for sharing!

  • GhostlyPixel@lemmy.worldEnglish
    31·
    2 days ago

    Really cool tool

    Her mentions of awk reminded me of a guy at my last job who was an absolute god with awk, but making changes to scripts he made were a nightmare because no one else could figure out what he was doing, and everything crashed and burned from small changes.

    • shastaxc@lemm.ee
      2·
      14 hours ago

      Awk is ok but often when I come across a script that I need to optimize because it’s too slow, the easiest gains come from replacing awk command. Most of them use awk for the most mundane stuff that can easily be done with shell parameter expansion instead.

    • mesamune@lemmy.worldOPEnglish
      27·
      1 day ago

      Sometimes a small python script that is readable is better for long term support.

      • QuazarOmega@lemy.lol
        125·
        1 day ago

        Sometimes

        Always*
        Shell scripting for serious tasks should crash and burn, wherever possible at least

        • LiveLM@lemmy.zipEnglish
          48·
          1 day ago

          For all that I shit talk Microsoft, Powershell does seem better suited for production tasks than bash and friends…

          • MonkderVierte
            9·
            1 day ago

            Powershell may be better for programming but is worse for shell tasks.

          • QuazarOmega@lemy.lol
            31·
            1 day ago

            Absolutely, the syntax and API isn’t exactly easy, but it is miles better because it’s both more familiar to other programming languages and because it is verbose.
            I argue that the complaint some have about its verbosity is of little meaning, those people have just used the shell so much that they naturally remember a lot of commands, what they’re used for and their specific syntax, but for a beginner it’s difficult to string everything together, because a lot of tools are of independent origin. Regardless, Powershell should by default have quite a few aliases to the commands/functions with long names so it’s not like you can’t have the best of both worlds

            • Laurel Raven@lemmy.zipEnglish
              3·
              14 hours ago

              Yep.

              I use it as a command shell regularly and the verbosity isn’t an issue at all, between aliases and tab completion.

              Honestly, having used both for years, PowerShell is actually easier in many respects just due to the object pipeline and dotnet, once you get to know them well enough. Being able to just toss output into a variable and mess around with it to understand its structure and contents is huge

  • grrgyle@slrpnk.net
    3·
    1 day ago

    I’m still sore that column -nts, doesn’t work anymore. My mnemonic for remembering it was “unts, unts, unts” like a dance club beat.

    Actually looking at the usage text I’m not sure how the -n flag ever worked for me… Maybe I’m misremembering.

  • eldaviEnglish
    851·
    2 days ago

    i love this person’s work; i’ve been working in the linux sphere for over 20 years but this person always teaches something that’s new to me and more helpful than the tools i’ve been using to get the job done; sed/awk in this case. (plus, the sense of humor also makes it fun to watch).

    i wish i were as rich as my fellow software engineers so that i can support her work because i’m convinced we need it in a world where people no longer have the same opportunities i had to learn this kind of tech because their smartphones inadvertently hide needful knowledge in the abstractions that make smartphones work.

    • nfmsEnglish
      7·
      1 day ago

      I’ve been following her for the past year, it’s a pity she doesn’t have a one time contribution scheme set up. I also can’t support everyone but judging from the donations on KDE people do tend to give small amounts and it really helps. Gonna try to contact her and see if she can accept something like that

    • mesamune@lemmy.worldOPEnglish
      25·
      2 days ago

      She does a great job. Im trying to add in a couple of her videos when I see them into the different communities. I usually go to awk to be honest, so I completely blanked on columns. I knew it existed from like 10 years ago, but forgot what I can use it for. I learned something form this video :)

      We need more entertaining Linux/open source people.

      • eldaviEnglish
        13·
        2 days ago

        We need more entertaining Linux/open source people.

        i think that this is what sets her apart from most; the sense of humor makes the video edit entertaining to watch like the on screen comments.

    • grue@lemmy.worldEnglish
      21·
      2 days ago

      inadvertently

      I don’t think that word means what you think it means.

        • 4am@lemm.ee
          6·
          2 days ago

          I don’t think they do it to make us dumber (there are other methods for that) but to make it accessible to people who don’t already know better.

          So, in this case, inadvertent is correct; Although it’s not without side effects.

          • eldaviEnglish
            5·
            2 days ago

            my new found media literacy is making me paranoid and OH BOY does this create all sorts of conspiracy rabbit holes for me to get lost into. lol

        • grue@lemmy.worldEnglish
          5·
          2 days ago

          Do I think it’s intentional that smartphones are ‘dumbed down’ compared to PCs, so as to turn them into devices for mindless consumption of corporate-controlled media instead of devices for empowering user freedom? Yes, yes I do.

          • eldaviEnglish
            9·
            2 days ago

            then its working very well; i learned this past xmas that my millennial/gen-z&a nephews/nieces are somehow less tech literate than their parents/grandparents.

            my well wishing for this channel was in the hopes of reversing this trend, but maybe it’s too little too late.

            we need superman; not mr. rogers. lol

  • davelAEnglish
    45·
    2 days ago

    I doubt anyone has ever regretted spending some time familiarizing themselves with the POSIX, util-linux, and GNU coreutils commands. You can do a lot by just piping these (mostly) simple tools together.

    • Classy@sh.itjust.works
      101·
      2 days ago

      Something else, all of the GNU coreutils have their own info [command] terminal command, and often the info page is incredibly easy to read, full of example pages and highly granular descriptions of flags, error messages, and the like.

      • davelAEnglish
        101·
        2 days ago

        Yeah GNU’s info pages are often more detailed than the man pages.

  • Snot Flickerman@lemmy.blahaj.zoneEnglish
    114·
    2 days ago

    It’s one of the few things that I think Powershell did more cleanly than Linux, was making those kind of options a lot clearer and pushing people to use them early on in education cycles, so knowledge of these cmdlets is more common than the Linux equivalents. (I know that’s harder to do with an all-volunteer OS built from the ground up versus a private company influencing education cycles, obviously. Linux always had the harder road.)

    Format-Custom, Format-Hex, Format-List, Format-Table, and Format-Wide are pretty indispensable when working with Powershell.

    Because precisely, 90% of the time, when it comes to Linux, the way you’re taught is to just grep what you need out.

    I’ve taken classes for both Powershell and Linux command line in college, and the PS class focused a lot on those commands while the Linux class never once mentioned column while spending a lot of time on grep.

    • Laurel Raven@lemmy.zipEnglish
      2·
      16 hours ago

      Funnily enough, I use PowerShell as my daily driver and I rarely ever use the Format verb cmdlets and think they need to stop teaching people to use them as much as they do… They’re only meant to modify how things are displayed, but in doing so, they trash the objects that were on the pipeline and replace them with formatting commands, and cause confusion when people try to do something with what they output

      The worst is using them to select properties, they should not have included that ability at all, that’s what the Select-Object cmdlet is for, which outputs usable objects

      Anyway, sorry for the rant… I just think those overall teach new users bad habits.

    • Zucca@sopuli.xyzEnglish
      41·
      2 days ago

      I’ve taken classes for both Powershell and Linux command line in college, and the PS class focused a lot on those commands while the Linux class never once mentioned column while spending a lot of time on grep.

      column belongs to util-linux

      A Linux class. Never mentioned column. Mind == boggled.

      Ironically grep is its own program. Although commonly it’s the GNU one, so could be considered in the same group as coreutils.