Scores of Beauty Engraving Challenges
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Using Git
The command line is a way of communicating with your computer. It allows you to communicate with computers more directly than using a mouse.
Here are a few tips to get you started:
-
When you open the command line for the first time, all you can see is the "prompt", which looks like
username@hostname ~/where/you/are $. To run a command, just type it and pressENTER. The command will usually produce some output, and then a new prompt will appear. -
The
~/where/you/arebit in the prompt is called "current working directory". All commands you run are executed from that directory. This is actually quite similar to how you usually work with your computer - when you turn it on, you can see your desktop and the files that are on it. To see files that are in some other folder, you open that folder. You can operate on the files that you can see in the currently opened folder - just like current working directory. -
To see all files and directories in the current working directory, use
lsorls -l. -
To go to some other directory, use
cd path/where/you/want/to/go
(note that this path is relative to the directory you're currently in.) -
To go to the parent directory, use
cd ... -
If you want to use filenames with spaces and similar special characters, you have to use quotes, like this:
cd "folder with spaces in name/subdirectory" -
Save typing by using autocompletion. After writing a few initial characters of a command (or a path, etc.) press
TABto have it automatically completed. If there are more than one possibility to complete the command nothing will happen first, but pressingTABa second time will present you with a list of all possible completions. -
On Linux and MacOS copying and pasting in command line is usually done with
Ctrl-Shift-CandCtrl-Shift-V(instead ofCtrl-CandCtrl-V). On Windows, pasting is done withInsertkey. -
pressing
Ctrl-Cin command line tells the computer to abort the command that is currently being executed, so you usually don't want to press this key combination accidentally :-)
Back to using Git
Don't use word processors (like Microsoft Word or OpenOffice) to edit plain text files - it's like driving a truck to take your kids to school. Instead, use a text editor such as TextMate (on MaxOS), Notepad++ (on Windows), JEdit (on any operating system) or some other.
Note that Windows notepad isn't a reasonable text editor (it doesn't work well with some files) - you have to use something else. It seems that Microsoft doesn't think that their operating system should include a decent text editor...
Back to using Git
.md files are plain text files (similar to .txt files) with formatting in Markdown. Many websites like GitHub can display Markdown-formatted files nicely formatted. You can edit these files with any text editor.
We say that data is stored in plain text files if these files are human-readable. In other words, when you open a plain text file in a text editor you will see text. If you see garbage, like this: xڭ\I#???|vܗɐЏL???????FV&Y\mUe6OKҡ then it's not a plain text file.
.txt and .md files are examples of plain text formats.
Plain text files don't require special software to be read and written; they are easy to process. To get the idea of the difference between plain text files and binary files (such as .doc or .pdf files), imagine that you have the following two methods to record a piece of text (a poem, or a shopping list):
- writing it down on paper using a pencil,
- using a special machine that chemically imprints the text on a thick metal plate in such a way that it can only be seen when the plate is freezed.
The first method is cheaper, you don't need specialistic tools for it, you may read the text any time you wish, and the paper is easier to carry around. And if you have a rubber and a pencil (or a pen, or a crayon), you can modify the text as you wish.
The second method... well, it's only advantage is that the machine can produce the prints in color, and they have high resolution. But the fact that you have to carry a refridgerator with you just to read them doesn't make it very convenient.