[readme]

I read the post you linked and I disagree with it because familiarity with the *nix command line is very useful for a developer working in industry. This guy sees it as a roadblock because he believes that the complicated nature of it will turn students away who would otherwise be good computer science researchers. This could be true. In any event, the post linked here seems aimed at people who want quick vocational education.

This is the difference between being a craftsman or being an academic. If you're a craftsman, you'd better know how to use your tools well. They're not an "obstacle" in the way of interesting research. They're a means to an end in accomplishing a goal.

At some point one should realize not every programmer is a computer scientist. Many of us are so much of computer scientists as a carpenter is an architect. For those of us who like to build things rapidly, familiarity with the posix shell and variants is a huge asset.

[falcolas]

> familiarity with the nix command line is very useful for a developer working in industry.

Depends on the industry. Familiarity with the command line for a Java developer is hardly required. Familiarity with the nix command line for a C# developer is utterly useless. Ditto that for video game developers.

On the other hand, if you're writing for linux, then yes, knowing the *nix command line is going to be incredibly useful. That said, there's a lot to "know" - it is its own programming language after all. How much familiarity do you want them to have, and what tradeoffs are you willing to assume if they have that familiarity?

[winash]

>Familiarity with the command line for a Java developer is hardly required.

You are assuming that developers would never require to grep app/db logs etc, I think in practice Java developers have to deal with the command line, I would partly agree with the C# bit

[_asummers]

I'm a Java developer that touches the command line for something besides git almost every single day. Just because you're in a higher level language does not mean you don't need tooling or don't have repetitive tasks. I refuse to start a JVM just so I can do some arbitrary task.

[zo1]

It's also partly the case of "everything looks like a nail". I personally feel that we are problem solvers first, and "programmers" second. So using a tool is a perfectly valid way to solve a problem. In fact, it works towards one of our key programming tenets of "reusability".

As an interesting aside to that; I have recently worked with a very peculiar older developer (his age isn't related, btw). He lives, and breathes the entire Microsoft stack. Knows all the buzzwords, configs, arcane incantations, etc. Whatever problem he comes across, his first response is "write a C# program". He has riddled our source control with arbitrary little executables, sitting next to *.pdb and app.config files.

Luckily, he doesn't work on our backend which runs on AIX (and we haven't pioneered trying Mono on it, yet).

[falcolas]

This is the reason I used the qualifier "hardly". Unfortunately I quite a few Java developers who can't cd their way out of their home directory.