Matthew Roach

Working the command line

Last week A Book Apart, released a couple of new brief books. For anyone who has read any of the A Book Apart books you could call them all “brief” books, but these are about half the size of the regular books. I have quite the collection of the books from them (not all), and they are great small reads that get across all the required information on the subject of the book in an easy to read manor, also allowing you to try out the techniques (if it’s a technical book) straight away.

When A Book Apart released two new books in their brief collection last week I instantly bought and downloaded the “Working the command line” by Remy Sharp. For someone who uses the command line on a daily basis I was intrigued to see if there was anything I did not know, or any tips, techniques I could pick up. Knowing it was a small book, I thought if there is at least one take away from it then that would be perfect. Also for just $8 it’s a way to support people from the industry who spend time creating these items.

I recommended this book to anyone who does things with the command line and doesn’t consider themselves an expert. I am comfortable using the command line, and sometimes have to Google my way around. Some of the commands I need to use Google for Remy has done an excellent job of explaining what they do and how to use them. It contains a lot of information on web development in general. Some people out there charge a pretty penny for something that you can teach yourself to do. There’s a wealth of information out there on the topic. This one was endorsed in an article I read at www.thedigitalswarm.com which is why I decided to check it out. With this being a short book you might think it’s covering just the basics but you will be happily surprised at some of the depths Remy has gone to in his examples. The piping examples are something that I learned a lot from, and now understand far more.