I just tried it, it works (Ubuntu server on raspberry pi). The `tldr` result for look describes it as "look for lines in a sorted file", which I guess uses the dictionary as a default.
I'm a boomer, and glad to have been around when all these things were being invented. I was definitely an early adopter, and used roff to type up my masters thesis in 1979 -- Sadly not on Unix but on an IBM proprietory TSO (Time Sharing Option) of their then mainframes. Troff, Nroff, Geoff are all based on the original roff functionality but re-implemented for copyright reasons, with only minor differences in function. In the physics department at Manchester England it was the first time anyone had submitted a thesis with text that was fully justified, let alone had chapter and section headings at the top of every page. Later when I was working somewhere that didn't have C or Unix or any of the xRoffs I re implemented a subset that included my favourite roff commands. The machines could be programmed in a proprietory assembly code or in Fortran 77. I was employed as an assembly / Fortran programmer. Given that restricted choice of languages I implemented my text processor in Fortran IV which proved acceptable to the F77 compiler. I also wrote all my science programmes in F.IV and the bosses didn't realise the difference, but that is another story.... It's true: real programmers do write text processor software in Fortran, but only when we actually have to. Given the number of reports I had to type, it actually saved me time within the first year of its existence, and colleagues were queuing up to use our spare computer to do the typing. Back in the day, I never even remotely imagined I would ever be able to afford to own my own Unix box, and now I have several.
Ah yes, the 80s. When you actually had to know how to use a computer to use one and couldn't just go "click on the pretty button". This was a book made for normies in the 80s, but it's doing things modern normies and soydevs see as rocket science. Really shows how as technology gets more advanced people care less and less about understanding it. "It has the pretty button I can click to make it go bleep bloop, what more do I need?"
@@tissuepaper9962 In the example of documents that works fine. If you prefer Word write in Word. The problem with too much abstraction typically comes with programming languages. People will write large scale applications in languages like Python, Javascript, or some other high-level language instead of languages like C, or C++ because it's easier for the developer to write, leading to the paradox of computers almost seeming slower as time goes on because new hardware comes out, people use more and more bloated software, and higher and higher level languages (Luke has a nice vid on this, called something like "computers were faster when they were slower", Mental Outlaw also has one with basically the same title). Not to knock higher-level languages, I love Python, I write in it all the time, but it's not suited for every task but people will want to use it for everything since it's so easy. And also it's about knowing more than doing. If you know how to use the commandline to get work done but prefer the gui that doesn't mean anything. The problem comes in when you ssh into a server and don't get a gui and you can't do anything. I agree with you on Latex, if you want a ton of fancy formatting or math or use want to use one of the specialized packages it offers, it's a great choice, but if you just want to throw something together really quick a WSYIWYG editor like Word or LibreOffice can often achieve your goal faster. You aren't a soydev if you don't write every program you make in x86 assembly and only use super minimal commandline programs, you're a soydev if you assume easier always equals better and don't realize that some tools just aren't right for some jobs. Javascript is great for web stuff, but whoever decided desktop apps should be written in JS also is probably the biggest soydev on the planet. Soydevs saying "I write everything in JS because it's so much easier for me compared to C or C++" would be like a construction worker saying "I build all my buildings with LEGO because it's so much easier than using brick and mortar" The problem isn't Javascript itself, it's that it's often used for a purpose it doesn't fit well. I don't use minimalist software to seem l33t (well, maybe a little), I use it because it does what I want to do more efficiently than other programs. I write a lot in Latex, but I also have libreoffice on my pc, because sometimes it's a lot easier and quicker to just use that. I could use sc-im, the terminal spreadsheet editor that Luke showed off in a previous vid, but I just can't get used to the keybinds and it's just infinitely easier to use LibreOffice Calc, so I use that when I need to use spreadsheets. Some people think if you don't do all your work in the terminal you're a n00b and you're not a real programmer if you don't write everything is assembly. I am not one of those people. I just think people should be more computer literate than they are and developers should focus more on writing efficient code over code that's easier for them to write.
@@sunset-inn Totally. There's a library for doing that called RenPy and I think a lot of visual novel games use it. I don't know, I don't really follow visual novel games. I just know it exists because Doki Doki Literature Club used it. You could use a faster language like C++ or Java (Citation needed on if Java is faster than Python. I'm pretty sure but not positive) but a visual novel isn't super resource invensive, so Python fits the job ok.
@@zackinator1439 the more apt analogy with construction would be that using higher level languages-such as Python, Java, etc-is like building not with LEGOs but prefab housing.
@@rafaelpolonio4837 on a positive note, the kindle is actually an amazing device. Its what got me into reading complicated literature like the very hungry caterpillar. I could just longpress to get the meaning for any word without having to refer a dictionary. Also it has this thing called vocabulary builder which is great. All in all this shit's pretty darn good if you buy it used. I got it for 30 ish dollars.
Exiting Vim has been a meme since the 80's? Lol. I remember my first time messing with Linux. It was Ubuntu server with no GUI so had to use the command line. I got stuck in Vim and almost started crying because i ended up restarting the computer and lost all my progress setting the system up.
I know a similar book that is pretty cool, called *The UNIX Programming Environment* , and it was written by two well known Bell Labs folks: Brian Kernighan (the one who wrote *The C Programming Language* book with Dennis Ritchie, and the K of AWK) and Rob Pike (co-father of GoLang, Plan 9 and other awesome stuff). The content it's pretty similar, but a tad shorter (there are a bit less things) and instead of vi or emacs they teach ed in this book. I was pretty lucky to get an used copy of it, and it's even in italian (simply called "UNIX", published by Zanichelli).
@@trueriver1950I know, but I am italian, so for me is not an issue reading it. Also non-english copies seem relatively rare, I never seen the Zanichelli one IRL before getting one (I knew it existed since that Kernighan posted some photos of various editions of that book on his site)
Funny thing you mention that, it's literally sitting at arm's lenght from me now :) "The C Programming Language" is on top of it. And on top of that is a 2007 book called "Build Muscle Lose Fat Look Great" :)) They're stacked on my printer. I wanted to go through them so I can then throw them away... but they've been there for 4-5 months now. 😂 Procrastination... 😂
so, ed is like the CLI predate to even the TUI text editors like Vi, right? I have read somewhere that Vi or Visual Improved actually was meaning towards that yeah, now its all visual rather than just line by line of ed.
I have a 1994 (first published in 1986) O'Reilly "UNIX in a Nutshell" book that was fantastic to have back-in-the-day. "A Desktop Quick Reference for System V & Solaris 2.0", LOL.
She has uploaded her consciousness over telnet using ed to a MUD played by 3 people and 77 alts with different personalities and 3066 scripts and bots running 24/7.
Tbh back in the day learning DOS without one was next to impossible. Unix systems usually come with manual databases and instructions for every program and utility. Companies would usually teach their employees to operate DOS machines in-house, since no-one could be expected to understand that shit otherwise.
If he's got The C Programming Language by Brain W. Kernighan and Dennis m. Ritchie (especially the second edition) thats still not a bad way to learn C.
What I love most about subscribing to Luke Smith is loving some of this videos and really hating other videos. And I need more of that in my life. Thanks, Luke.
Another must-read to mention and that is still digitally available (comes with roff source: github.com/DeriJames/UTP-1.1 ): Unix Text Processing, by Dale Dougherty and Tim O'Reilly (www.oreilly.com/openbook/utp ).
Look is in util-linux package along with kill, fsck, fdisk, mkfs and other stuff. It does not appear to be included in busybox, which somewhat overlaps with util-linux.
Thanks! I'm tempted to get this one if only for the roff stuff. It's such a staple in Unix, especially classic Unix. I mean man pages are written in roff. I love this old stuff. You just don't see many good hand-holdy Unix books around. I lost it when I say Elliot on Mr. Robot use nano. "Elliot! Really??!!" I found an old book last summer that espoused the efficiency of working with ed. Made a really good case. Why pull up a full screen editor when you just need to work with a few lines? In and out in no time with perfect shell integration. I mean most of the original Unix and C compiler were written with it. Sure, in the Mac and Windows worlds we're used to pulling up elaborate applications to do almost anything. Unix just isn't like that. It's like the country kids who automatically take a car to get anywhere because that's what you have to do when your nearest neighbor is a mile or two down the road. In the city you may not even need a car, which is just unimaginable to the country kid.
Nroff or rather ptroff was how I got into Unix, and computing, and later Linux, and got me using the Internet back in 1989 (Usenet News). As an English Lit. and Psychology student I wanted to use the Computer Science labs and their terminals and shared laser printer to write my essays, lab reports and dissertations.
The good thing is that there are heaps of books like those out there. Three years ago, I picked up an old book on openSUSE and one on MS-DOS 3.1 for free. You can get so much awesome stuff on fleamarkets, it's amazing!
The look command works on my Fedora machine. The dictionary is missing a bunch of words though, I just realized the spell-check firefox and libreoffice pull from is the same one look uses. Yesterday I was writing a comment and used concise. It wasn't in the dictionary so it flagged it as misspelled.
What happened to your livestream yersterday? I was watching 15 minutes behind and it suddenly went offline. YT hasn't automatically uploaded it either.
@@diegosandoval2043 Somebody asked him if he knew what Vtubers were. He said no, chat explained, and then he said he thought he saw a furry youtuber using similar technology, then the stream just cut. I don't think it was on purpose but it was hilarious.
@@Houshalter You really aren't missing much, the stream was very rushed and he didn't really talk about anything other than the milk in his passenger seat. He did it as an afterthought.
Hi, i just checked my centos7 server and yes look's still there , and vim (7.4 ) still supports ZZ . it surprised me that commands an shortcuts from that far back still works ! in 20+ years i have never used nroff.
In old day, there was no mouse, at least it in the begin to be use. People was not attached to use a mouse and they have a best keybord. It is so normal to do effort to learn stuff
For a Unix book that's meant for everybody, it's a shame that it's completely out of print, and only available through borrowing via the Archive. Nothing from the Seven Seas or that Genesis Library, either. Even the Unix Hater's Handbook is more accessible than this.
The look command still works. You just have to create a file named words in /usr/share/dict and then just fill it with a word list. There are a few in the AUR.
I remember learning to be a better C programmer back in the 99 when I read late soviet book "Learning UNIX syscalls" or something. No comics yet straight to face delivery. Adore. Anyway, Luke, have you got a scanner?
I think most people would benefit from a physical reference the first couple times they need to use vim. on screen tooltips arnt always helpful if your first experience is while trying to get a system working for the first time. you toggle back and forth tabbing or going to your phone / tablet /laptop to check the reference, then dont use it for a while and forget it all. After a few times going through the motions, searching for the answer on a second machine "press ':q! return'" and forget a few times. "It's too hard" becomes the excuse to not learn the tool productively. Should you learn it? maybe. I think its most useful as a dev tool, and thats probably the best env to learn it. if not maybe not.
lpr (BSD) vs lp (system v) BSD style commands better than the System V equivalent because it's less verbose. The BSD lpq command without any arguments displays default printer information, the same cannot be said for lpstat.
I have collection of old Unix books.. We converted from VMS to Berkeley Unix on Vaxs @ UW back in the day. There were many books.. Unix for VMS users, two book set was a great one. Vi no GUi no mouse. "UNIX is snake oil"(Ken Olson). UNix is relatively unreliable and insecure (so as to require continuing upgrades from AT&T).
for me, Groff compared to LaTex is like Alsa compared to Pulseausio: It just CAN'T do some things properly (like using images, they are compressed like s**t), if anyone is capable of showing me a tutorial that is proving me wrong, I would be happy to read it, because i looked for it as much as I could and it never worked the way it was supposed to...
?roff is cool, but what I find lacking about it is the lack of support for Unicode. Typing documents in anything other than US English plain ASCII is not supported (yet?).
5:00 The word "difficult" for someone to exit vim is wrong/misleading. It's not difficult, its "cryptic". Because when someone enters vim, there's absolutely no way of him knowing how either vim works or how to do anything in it, not even how to open a help page. There's nothing that indicates a series of instructions when you're in vim about how to do anything, not even how to exit. That's what's the meme is about :P
Yeah: steep learning curve, but not difficult once learnt. When u was working in programming in the eighties I knew several dozen vi commands at the muscle level and didn't have to think about it. Very fast. Now I rarely edit text files, just the odd tweak to a config, I find I am only remembering the very basic commands, needing to look up everything else. Among occasional users of text editor I can understand why nano is popular. It's also why back is used in the Gentoo tutorials. Those who prefer vi can use it easily enough, (ditto I imagine those who are in team Emacs), but the person who is struggling to understand Gentoo doesn't get distracted by having to learn a set of edit commands at the same time.
@Luke Smith: How does this compare to Unix Text Processing (another classic, but much more freely available online -- web.archive.org/web/20201015162534id_/home.windstream.net/kollar/utp/ ). Also, if you like roff, have you tried mandoc?
@@baileyharrison1030 Ahh so it's save AND exit. Is Z some prefix in vim? First I've ever heard of it, and vim has been my terminal editor for over a decade.
I have seen in my dream where Mental Outlaw cat was stabbed with knife to its head and put inside an oven bag residing at an apartment corridor then Richard Stallman breaks into home and suddenly run towards me and I wake up.
Only Luke would recommend you a book whose only copy exists on his bookshelf and then call you a soydev for not having it.
Don't forget the collective burn at 2:00.
Soydev
Well, just get the book?
archive.org/details/unixforpeoplemod00birn
chausse.xyz/library/UNIX-for-people--A-modular-guide-to-the-UNIX-operating-system.pdf
1:57 Mental Outlaw, 1984.
LUL
LOL
Funniest thing I’ve seen all day
The first time he's ever seen his dad.
The unpersons list has bean updated.
echo "Jack Ma" >> unpearsons.index
echo "Luke Smith" >> unpearsons.index
Edit
echo "Donald Trump" >> unpearsons.index
'Unix for People' reading audiobook narrated by Luke Smith, when?
Next not related episode maybe.
I will do a preorder
I am a discount Russian Luke Smith, I can do that. At a discount price.
@@altEFG If you have a noticeable Russian accent, you can charge more for the novelty.
@@altEFG what's your price
11:16 "I'm not a boomer, I don't know!"
> Uses a book to study Unix.
LOOK
EGG
mfw a 1980s UNIX book has better zoomer memes than le epic python 2020 official bootcamp cookbook
default runescape character automates boring stuff with python
DILATE
@@tarekali7064 default runescape character automates chopping yews with python
I just tried it, it works (Ubuntu server on raspberry pi). The `tldr` result for look describes it as "look for lines in a sorted file", which I guess uses the dictionary as a default.
This dudes mom uses Arch Linux:
medium.com/gdg-vit/my-mom-uses-archlinux-e678f29b0df7
I'm a boomer, and glad to have been around when all these things were being invented.
I was definitely an early adopter, and used roff to type up my masters thesis in 1979 -- Sadly not on Unix but on an IBM proprietory TSO (Time Sharing Option) of their then mainframes.
Troff, Nroff, Geoff are all based on the original roff functionality but re-implemented for copyright reasons, with only minor differences in function.
In the physics department at Manchester England it was the first time anyone had submitted a thesis with text that was fully justified, let alone had chapter and section headings at the top of every page.
Later when I was working somewhere that didn't have C or Unix or any of the xRoffs I re implemented a subset that included my favourite roff commands.
The machines could be programmed in a proprietory assembly code or in Fortran 77. I was employed as an assembly / Fortran programmer. Given that restricted choice of languages I implemented my text processor in Fortran IV which proved acceptable to the F77 compiler.
I also wrote all my science programmes in F.IV and the bosses didn't realise the difference, but that is another story....
It's true: real programmers do write text processor software in Fortran, but only when we actually have to.
Given the number of reports I had to type, it actually saved me time within the first year of its existence, and colleagues were queuing up to use our spare computer to do the typing.
Back in the day, I never even remotely imagined I would ever be able to afford to own my own Unix box, and now I have several.
Ah yes, the 80s. When you actually had to know how to use a computer to use one and couldn't just go "click on the pretty button". This was a book made for normies in the 80s, but it's doing things modern normies and soydevs see as rocket science. Really shows how as technology gets more advanced people care less and less about understanding it. "It has the pretty button I can click to make it go bleep bloop, what more do I need?"
@@tissuepaper9962 In the example of documents that works fine. If you prefer Word write in Word. The problem with too much abstraction typically comes with programming languages. People will write large scale applications in languages like Python, Javascript, or some other high-level language instead of languages like C, or C++ because it's easier for the developer to write, leading to the paradox of computers almost seeming slower as time goes on because new hardware comes out, people use more and more bloated software, and higher and higher level languages (Luke has a nice vid on this, called something like "computers were faster when they were slower", Mental Outlaw also has one with basically the same title). Not to knock higher-level languages, I love Python, I write in it all the time, but it's not suited for every task but people will want to use it for everything since it's so easy. And also it's about knowing more than doing. If you know how to use the commandline to get work done but prefer the gui that doesn't mean anything. The problem comes in when you ssh into a server and don't get a gui and you can't do anything. I agree with you on Latex, if you want a ton of fancy formatting or math or use want to use one of the specialized packages it offers, it's a great choice, but if you just want to throw something together really quick a WSYIWYG editor like Word or LibreOffice can often achieve your goal faster. You aren't a soydev if you don't write every program you make in x86 assembly and only use super minimal commandline programs, you're a soydev if you assume easier always equals better and don't realize that some tools just aren't right for some jobs. Javascript is great for web stuff, but whoever decided desktop apps should be written in JS also is probably the biggest soydev on the planet. Soydevs saying "I write everything in JS because it's so much easier for me compared to C or C++" would be like a construction worker saying "I build all my buildings with LEGO because it's so much easier than using brick and mortar" The problem isn't Javascript itself, it's that it's often used for a purpose it doesn't fit well. I don't use minimalist software to seem l33t (well, maybe a little), I use it because it does what I want to do more efficiently than other programs. I write a lot in Latex, but I also have libreoffice on my pc, because sometimes it's a lot easier and quicker to just use that. I could use sc-im, the terminal spreadsheet editor that Luke showed off in a previous vid, but I just can't get used to the keybinds and it's just infinitely easier to use LibreOffice Calc, so I use that when I need to use spreadsheets. Some people think if you don't do all your work in the terminal you're a n00b and you're not a real programmer if you don't write everything is assembly. I am not one of those people. I just think people should be more computer literate than they are and developers should focus more on writing efficient code over code that's easier for them to write.
/r/im14andthisisdeep
@@zackinator1439 Is it okay to using python to make a visual novel?
@@sunset-inn Totally. There's a library for doing that called RenPy and I think a lot of visual novel games use it. I don't know, I don't really follow visual novel games. I just know it exists because Doki Doki Literature Club used it. You could use a faster language like C++ or Java (Citation needed on if Java is faster than Python. I'm pretty sure but not positive) but a visual novel isn't super resource invensive, so Python fits the job ok.
@@zackinator1439 the more apt analogy with construction would be that using higher level languages-such as Python, Java, etc-is like building not with LEGOs but prefab housing.
this textbook has memes in it! just like the real internet!
this books has memes in it! where?
1:37
"I'm not a boomer"- Boomer
Wait. Am I supposed to READ whole BOOK? What year is this? 2010?
archive.org/details/unixforpeoplemod00birn/
yeah it's still 2010
Maybe it is on Blinkist, not sure
I was doing this but in 1995'ish
Hey **sips soy**
Does it come in ebook version?
My tablet only reads PDFs
I need the Amazon link...
Uhhh, my tablet?! Don't you recognise this is my brand new Amazon™ Kindle? What are you, some kind of caveman?
@@rafaelpolonio4837 on a positive note, the kindle is actually an amazing device. Its what got me into reading complicated literature like the very hungry caterpillar. I could just longpress to get the meaning for any word without having to refer a dictionary. Also it has this thing called vocabulary builder which is great. All in all this shit's pretty darn good if you buy it used. I got it for 30 ish dollars.
ngl I just started searching for a pdf. this book looks cool.
I can read it online from my school's library. The DRM is a nightmare though.
I write this on my 90’s Sun Ultra Sparc Workstation with Solaris CDE
Seriously, you have a youtube on that? How?
@@hamobu he just made a CLI post request to create a comment or some shit
@@hamobu ☝🏼don‘t believe everything that‘s posted on the internet
It could, and should be done. First don’t forget to eat your tofu
Exiting Vim has been a meme since the 80's? Lol. I remember my first time messing with Linux. It was Ubuntu server with no GUI so had to use the command line. I got stuck in Vim and almost started crying because i ended up restarting the computer and lost all my progress setting the system up.
The funny pictures actually make those things stick in your brain more easily
I would make t shirts with them
I'm the black guy on the command line hahaha BASED!
Good recommendation, I've read this book a long time ago... it's actually fun to read.
I know a similar book that is pretty cool, called *The UNIX Programming Environment* , and it was written by two well known Bell Labs folks: Brian Kernighan (the one who wrote *The C Programming Language* book with Dennis Ritchie, and the K of AWK) and Rob Pike (co-father of GoLang, Plan 9 and other awesome stuff).
The content it's pretty similar, but a tad shorter (there are a bit less things) and instead of vi or emacs they teach ed in this book.
I was pretty lucky to get an used copy of it, and it's even in italian (simply called "UNIX", published by Zanichelli).
who?
I wouldn't have felt so lucky to get the Italian version, LOL
@@trueriver1950I know, but I am italian, so for me is not an issue reading it.
Also non-english copies seem relatively rare, I never seen the Zanichelli one IRL before getting one (I knew it existed since that Kernighan posted some photos of various editions of that book on his site)
Funny thing you mention that, it's literally sitting at arm's lenght from me now :) "The C Programming Language" is on top of it. And on top of that is a 2007 book called "Build Muscle Lose Fat Look Great" :)) They're stacked on my printer.
I wanted to go through them so I can then throw them away... but they've been there for 4-5 months now. 😂 Procrastination... 😂
so, ed is like the CLI predate to even the TUI text editors like Vi, right? I have read somewhere that Vi or Visual Improved actually was meaning towards that yeah, now its all visual rather than just line by line of ed.
I have a 1994 (first published in 1986) O'Reilly "UNIX in a Nutshell" book that was fantastic to have back-in-the-day. "A Desktop Quick Reference for System V & Solaris 2.0", LOL.
Legends say that old lady is still 1337 and pwning systems.
she just SSH'd to your computer and installed ubuntu
She has uploaded her consciousness over telnet using ed to a MUD played by 3 people and 77 alts with different personalities and 3066 scripts and bots running 24/7.
she knows how to replace the default window manager in macOS X
my dad also has these kinds of books but for dos, bank applications, and programming languages they are pretty cool to look through
Tbh back in the day learning DOS without one was next to impossible. Unix systems usually come with manual databases and instructions for every program and utility.
Companies would usually teach their employees to operate DOS machines in-house, since no-one could be expected to understand that shit otherwise.
If he's got The C Programming Language by Brain W. Kernighan and Dennis m. Ritchie (especially the second edition) thats still not a bad way to learn C.
8:34 "none of this stuff is funny of course"
( _After Luke stopped the video he opened back the book and cracked up laughing in tears of joy_ )
3:21 the best line
1:48 is the funniest shit I've ever seen
What I love most about subscribing to Luke Smith is loving some of this videos and really hating other videos. And I need more of that in my life. Thanks, Luke.
Another must-read to mention and that is still digitally available (comes with roff source: github.com/DeriJames/UTP-1.1 ): Unix Text Processing, by Dale Dougherty and Tim O'Reilly (www.oreilly.com/openbook/utp ).
i have always been wanting to learn about sed and awk, with this book, i will be able to. thanks a lot.
When I saw the title of the book it reminded me of another old book called “Fortran for Humans”. lol
Sales for this book are going to skyrocket now leading to massive inflation like Thinkpad x220's after this channel started 🤣️
Once us digital nomads grab the very last vintage Thinkpad, there'll be a very lucrative market for newly-made Thinkpad-like machines.
@@Cris-bj7ee i already picked up 2 x220's for myself last year now the price is 4x what i paid xD
@@tissuepaper9962 the x220 keyboard though.....
@@BryanJenks what price was it then?
@@lolvivo8783 i managed to snag one for $100 on ebay, and then later i bought a second for $150-200
"E PLURIBUS UNIX" lmao that's legitimately great
Look is in util-linux package along with kill, fsck, fdisk, mkfs and other stuff. It does not appear to be included in busybox, which somewhat overlaps with util-linux.
2:00 i am literally sitting exactly like that right now, keyboard and all
Was just looking for this comment
Ye Olde Tome of Unixe, replete with its own memes.
1:55 he's unix-based
Thanks! I'm tempted to get this one if only for the roff stuff. It's such a staple in Unix, especially classic Unix. I mean man pages are written in roff.
I love this old stuff. You just don't see many good hand-holdy Unix books around.
I lost it when I say Elliot on Mr. Robot use nano. "Elliot! Really??!!"
I found an old book last summer that espoused the efficiency of working with ed. Made a really good case. Why pull up a full screen editor when you just need to work with a few lines? In and out in no time with perfect shell integration. I mean most of the original Unix and C compiler were written with it.
Sure, in the Mac and Windows worlds we're used to pulling up elaborate applications to do almost anything. Unix just isn't like that.
It's like the country kids who automatically take a car to get anywhere because that's what you have to do when your nearest neighbor is a mile or two down the road. In the city you may not even need a car, which is just unimaginable to the country kid.
Nroff or rather ptroff was how I got into Unix, and computing, and later Linux, and got me using the Internet back in 1989 (Usenet News). As an English Lit. and Psychology student I wanted to use the Computer Science labs and their terminals and shared laser printer to write my essays, lab reports and dissertations.
11:16 "I'm not a boomer" u sure?
I googled this book. A brand new copy of it on Amazon is $768 and the least expensive used copy is $73.
No thank you!
The good thing is that there are heaps of books like those out there. Three years ago, I picked up an old book on openSUSE and one on MS-DOS 3.1 for free. You can get so much awesome stuff on fleamarkets, it's amazing!
@@clementb.4889 there's a pdf on libgen
It's on archive . Org
Yeah, I just wanna print my documents... but does it teach me how to print my family photos from Facebook? Tch... not ready for the desktop, bro.
I mean lpr does that too.
lpr my_selfie.jpg
It jest werks.
@@LukeSmithxyz How was I supposed to know that?! *Autistic screeching.*
Wait, I need to go try that now.
Look still works in linux mint 20 out of the box. Useful command i've never seen.
The graphical user interface was a mistake perhaps Xerox park did us a favour keeping it in a research lab.
The look command works on my Fedora machine. The dictionary is missing a bunch of words though, I just realized the spell-check firefox and libreoffice pull from is the same one look uses. Yesterday I was writing a comment and used concise. It wasn't in the dictionary so it flagged it as misspelled.
What happened to your livestream yersterday? I was watching 15 minutes behind and it suddenly went offline. YT hasn't automatically uploaded it either.
@@5000okok I wouldn't upload it after what it ended on lmao
i missed it too. He sometimes reuploads them on lbry but its not there yet
@@diegosandoval2043 Somebody asked him if he knew what Vtubers were. He said no, chat explained, and then he said he thought he saw a furry youtuber using similar technology, then the stream just cut. I don't think it was on purpose but it was hilarious.
@@Houshalter You really aren't missing much, the stream was very rushed and he didn't really talk about anything other than the milk in his passenger seat. He did it as an afterthought.
13:15 if latex is redundant, how come troff doesn't even have \left( and
ight) equivalents? checkmate boomer
Not kidding here - I used to use troff in the 80s because even when I wrote a letter to my mom it felt like I was programming.
"look" still works on ubuntu
Luke: "look is gone"
OpenBSD: Am I a joke to you?
Me: look egg
works on my debian
Hi, i just checked my centos7 server and yes look's still there , and vim (7.4 ) still supports ZZ . it surprised me that commands an shortcuts from that far back still works ! in 20+ years i have never used nroff.
I too had it installed. The package on my computer is called bsdextrautils.
Works on archlinux too, just there is no dictionary you should install "words"
Look is still part of util-linux
If luke publish his own textbook it would be the first time I didn't feel like I was being scammed buying one
That textbook must smell like a library
All those commands still exist. If you can't find them in your repo you can compile them from the .c files linking to your current libraries.
In old day, there was no mouse, at least it in the begin to be use. People was not attached to use a mouse and they have a best keybord. It is so normal to do effort to learn stuff
@2:30 is that stallman?
amazon says $74 - $760
libgen doesn't seem to have it
I'll take a look
LIBGEN
MY SIN
MY SOUL
For a Unix book that's meant for everybody, it's a shame that it's completely out of print, and only available through borrowing via the Archive. Nothing from the Seven Seas or that Genesis Library, either. Even the Unix Hater's Handbook is more accessible than this.
I just don't get how this book has kept its value, or why the archive even has a borrowing system for books to begin with.
there's a pdf on libgen
@@h1dd3nllama
Wow that must have been recent, as I checked yesterday and it wasn't there.
Thanks!
@@thepuzzlemaster64 pleasure!
I would enjoy more videos like this. Thanks!
@ 4:00 so cannot ever type ZZ in Vim, 'ts quite a drawback.
Some clown on amazon is trying to sell this book for $700 +
The look command still exists and is very useful
The look command still works. You just have to create a file named words in /usr/share/dict and then just fill it with a word list. There are a few in the AUR.
oh neat, I had my dictionary file in my XDG_DOCUMENT_HOME cool to know theres an official place for it
on arch just install "words"
"look" is definitely still there, it seems that you need a dictionary file for it however which doesn't come preinstalled.
I remember learning to be a better C programmer back in the 99 when I read late soviet book "Learning UNIX syscalls" or something. No comics yet straight to face delivery. Adore.
Anyway, Luke, have you got a scanner?
I rarely escape vim with ZZ since I'm used to saving files with :w all the time. To quit :wq is just more natural.
:x
It’ll change your life.
Team :x
will someone ever tell him that ZZ actually saves and quits, whereas ZQ quits without saving.
can you post the book in markdown please
Hey Luke, where do you buy all your books?
Unix created the universe. It started on Dec. 31st, 1969
Don't you mean Jan 0, 1970?
@@trueriver1950 Something like that...
And now where to find that book.
Is this book on library genesis? I like books with pictures.
To bad that this book isn't available anywhere
I think most people would benefit from a physical reference the first couple times they need to use vim.
on screen tooltips arnt always helpful if your first experience is while trying to get a system working for the first time.
you toggle back and forth tabbing or going to your phone / tablet /laptop to check the reference, then dont use it for a while and forget it all.
After a few times going through the motions, searching for the answer on a second machine "press ':q! return'" and forget a few times.
"It's too hard" becomes the excuse to not learn the tool productively. Should you learn it? maybe. I think its most useful as a dev tool, and thats probably the best env to learn it. if not maybe not.
lpr (BSD) vs lp (system v) BSD style commands better than the System V equivalent because it's less verbose. The BSD lpq command without any arguments displays default printer information, the same cannot be said for lpstat.
Father, how do I click a book?
Anyone have this book in pdf or something like that?
ZZ to exit vim? This noobie learned something new today!
ZQ when you edit grub config directly in root mode and your cat just jumped on your keyboard
@@andreipopescu7636 WHAAAAT
A Strange Flash of book about unix was in my head from couple of days till I see this video.
I'm going to try tracking this book down. It sounds like a good read.
there's a pdf on libgen
Great video, I'm crazy for Unix
I have collection of old Unix books.. We converted from VMS to Berkeley Unix on Vaxs @ UW back in the day. There were many books.. Unix for VMS users, two book set was a great one. Vi no GUi no mouse. "UNIX is snake oil"(Ken Olson). UNix is relatively unreliable and insecure (so as to require continuing upgrades from AT&T).
for me, Groff compared to LaTex is like Alsa compared to Pulseausio:
It just CAN'T do some things properly (like using images, they are compressed like s**t), if anyone is capable of showing me a tutorial that is proving me wrong, I would be happy to read it, because i looked for it as much as I could and it never worked the way it was supposed to...
PulseAudio lol
Hey Luke, are there any other modern books that you read and can recommend?
Damn Luke, I knew it would come to this
?roff is cool, but what I find lacking about it is the lack of support for Unicode. Typing documents in anything other than US English plain ASCII is not supported (yet?).
5:00 The word "difficult" for someone to exit vim is wrong/misleading. It's not difficult, its "cryptic". Because when someone enters vim, there's absolutely no way of him knowing how either vim works or how to do anything in it, not even how to open a help page. There's nothing that indicates a series of instructions when you're in vim about how to do anything, not even how to exit. That's what's the meme is about :P
Yeah: steep learning curve, but not difficult once learnt.
When u was working in programming in the eighties I knew several dozen vi commands at the muscle level and didn't have to think about it. Very fast.
Now I rarely edit text files, just the odd tweak to a config, I find I am only remembering the very basic commands, needing to look up everything else. Among occasional users of text editor I can understand why nano is popular.
It's also why back is used in the Gentoo tutorials. Those who prefer vi can use it easily enough, (ditto I imagine those who are in team Emacs), but the person who is struggling to understand Gentoo doesn't get distracted by having to learn a set of edit commands at the same time.
Just tried lpr, it still works
I want that book now but can not find it on the internet.
you can borrow it on archive.org
I have Daniel Barrett's Second Edition Pocket Guide
I might buy a copy of this if i can find it off ebay it looks like a cool book
3:20 Spilled my soylent
@Luke Smith: How does this compare to Unix Text Processing (another classic, but much more freely available online -- web.archive.org/web/20201015162534id_/home.windstream.net/kollar/utp/ ). Also, if you like roff, have you tried mandoc?
ZZ is not the same as :q!, that would be ZQ. ZZ exits and saves
"Eunuchs-based operating systems" Man! That's cold!
Nice LED cube on the cover
Can you make a video on how to type multilingual documents in groff? It seems really hard... Program this good should be able to do that..
pdf sauce?
you can borrow it on archive.org
Never heard of ZZ to exit vim. I tried it in neovim and it doesn't work unless you are editing a named file.
how would ZZ be able to save and exit unless it already knows the file name? To exit without saving use ZQ
@@baileyharrison1030 Ahh so it's save AND exit. Is Z some prefix in vim? First I've ever heard of it, and vim has been my terminal editor for over a decade.
"I don't know, I'm not a boomer"
HAHAHAHAHAAAA LOL
isn't ZZ for save & quit?
but you don't have something like a preamble in that formatting program?
(I'm over here in Neovim, typing `:tab Man [command I don't know]` for so many things I've never heard of.)
ZZ and ZQ work in Neovim.
`look` stil exists:
$ look hello
hello
hello's
hellos
in my arch installation and I definitely didn't install it manually.
It's part of the util-linux package.
I have seen in my dream where Mental Outlaw cat was stabbed with knife to its head and put inside an oven bag residing at an apartment corridor then Richard Stallman breaks into home and suddenly run towards me and I wake up.
just tested look, pretty neat
I would unironically read this entire book.