Command Line for Kids

Work in Progress

This is my syllabus for the 2012 Free Geek Summer Camp Command Line class.

Class Teaching Goals

• have fun, promote interest
• run a program
• introduce options and arguments using cowsay
• introduce the command prompt
• introduce man pages
• introduce file system
• Tab completion?
• navigation and keyboard skills

Main concepts

• command line provides more direct access to the functions of your computer
• using the command line gives you total access: Use it wisely!

Questions to pose to the class

• Why use the command line?
• Have you ever used the command line before? What happened?
• Do we use command line in Windows? What is different about Linux command line?

Exercise

$ sudo apt-get install cowsay
$ cowsay

Why does nothing happen? This program needs something else from us to run. Let's check the manual.

$man cowsay

It looks like we need the cow to say something. Hit the q key to exit the man page.

So it looks like we have some different modes. There is -b for Borg mode -d for Dead mode -g for Greedy mode and so on.

Key words

• command line
• graphical user interface
• man page

Fun things

telnet towel.blinkenlights.nl