[colug-432] Looking for a Linux-based time-keeping application

[Richard Hornsby]

On Feb 25, 2011, at 06:18 , Steve VanSlyck wrote:

> ----- Original Message -----
>> I personally do not know of any such application to exist. Although it
>> sounds like an awesome app to develop for the freelance job space. I am
>> excited to hear what responses you get.
> 
> As a scatterbrained lawyer I would find this pretty useful.
> 
> On another front....
> 
> Does anyone perhaps have such a thing as an - alias file?? - that would 
> translate DOS command line commands to to their linux bash shell 
> equivalents? Mostly what I would like is DIR and CD so that I can 
> navigate around and find stuff more easily while I learn linux. I'm 
> embarking on this again after abandoning the project a year ago.


I'm truly not trying to be a linux "snob" or whatever, but you're much better off imho learning the *NIX version of the commands.  You can put an alias file on your system, but you're going to end up teaching yourself for example, the command "dir" instead of ls, which will make it harder to actually learn the right commands

aztec:~ rhornsby$ dir
-bash: dir: command not found

is a pretty good hint.  Also, when you log into another system that alias file won't be available for you, making it much harder for you to do whatever you intended.  

I think one other thing you might end up doing - maybe without realizing it - is failing to exploit the power of the *NIX shell, which is worlds beyond anything DOS can manage.  Much of this power comes from combining tools like grep, sed, cut, sort, uniq, etc.  The reason I say that - and I could be wrong - is that you'd be forcing your brain to stay in "DOS" mode, where you're limited to a handful of commands and very little power relatively speaking.  Whereas, if you can transition into thinking "I'm in the *NIX world now - what are the possibilities?" I think you'll have a much more rewarding experience - especially when you start writing your own shell scripts.  At least, that is how it was for me.  YMMV.

cd is still cd :)  The syntax is a little bit different (forward slashes, no c:\, no need to change drive letters to move across file systems etc - but nothing an alias will help with).  You'll pick it up, be patient with yourself.  Explore, play, try things, and see what happens.  I know you've heard it before, but I'll repeat it anyways - we've all been where you're at sometime in the past.  We're here to help so don't be afraid to ask.

Side note: because I've spent so much of my time over the last 15 years in *NIX environments (having come over from DOS), I tend to have the opposite problem - I keep trying to make Windoze understand "ls".  Then I curse at "cmd.exe" while laboriously typing "dir".

> Also, Linux for Dummies is a leeeetle to basic for me. A year ago some1 
> suggested another book. Not via this list, but I thought I would ask 
> around here to see if someone might be able to read that person's mind a 
> year ago and tell me what publication they suggested. I do know it is 
> completely downloadable as well as available in print.


This one was recommended to me years ago as a good resource for learning that goes beyond the "...for dummies" 

What You Need To Know: when you can't find your UNIX system administrator

http://www.amazon.com/What-You-Need-Know-administrator/dp/1565921046/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1298648183&sr=8-1-spell


-rj