[ADD] Adding a blog post describing the review of "Introduction to the command line"

_posts/2017-02-28-book-review-introduction-to-the-commandline.md

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+---
+layout: post
+categories: book review
+title: Book review 'Introduction to the Command Line'
+tag: books linux programming
+---
+![introduction_to_command_line]({{ site.url
+}}/assets/images/book_image_introduction_to_the_commandline.jpg)
+
+
+## tl;dr
+
+
+Every chapter will introduce a bunch of comands and will point to its
+respective documentation for further learning. You should expect chapters
+describing from the [grep](https://www.gnu.org/software/grep/manual/grep.html)
+command to [GNU Octave](https://www.gnu.org/software/octave/) which is a
+scientific programming language. The chapters are independent of each other.
+The book is must read if you are new to the
+[GNU/Linux](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linux) command line. If you are at
+the intermediate level, then too investing time in reading this book will
+unveil a few surprises for you.
+
+
+## Detailed review
+
+The book is community driven and published under [FLOSS
+Manual](http://flossmanuals.net). It is a collaborative effort of the
+[FSF](http://www.fsf.org/) community. The fun part is you can contribute to
+this book by adding new chapters or by improving an existing one. I fixed one
+typo in this book after reading. The best introduction is crafted comparing GUI
+based image editing tools with the most unknown command
+[convert](https://linux.die.net/man/1/convert). It conveys the importance of
+command line well to the reader. Initial chapters will present the overview of
+various [GNU/bash](https://www.gnu.org/software/bash/) commands. From my
+personal experience, you have to use mentioned commands in this chapter daily.
+The chapter of Command history shortcuts depicts geeky shell patterns.  I will
+advise not to skip that chapter and read through once. The advanced section was
+not much advance for me.  It demonstrates
+[ssh](https://linux.die.net/man/1/ssh) and related commands like
+[scp](https://linux.die.net/man/1/scp) and more. I appreciated the preference
+of using [GNU Screen](https://www.gnu.org/software/screen/) though I use
+[tmux](https://tmux.github.io/) over it. If you are possessed by moving around
+on multiple directories simultaneously, then **directory stacks** under
+**Moving Again** section is worth scanning.  This functionality is saving
+dozens of my keystrokes now.  There is one entire division dedicated to various
+editors. That section is not limited to [GNU
+Emacs](https://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/) or [vim][vim], but also briefs [GNU
+NANO](https://www.nano-editor.org/), [Kedit](http://www.kedit.com/) and
+[Gedit](https://wiki.gnome.org/Apps/Gedit). This section does not compare the
+pros and cons of several editors, but describes basics of each which should be
+counted as a good part.  I skipped this part because I am comfortable with
+[vim][vim] editor at present and don’t want to invest much in others.
+
+The scripting section turned out to be the most interesting division for me.
+Though I was aware about the tools like
+[sed](https://www.gnu.org/software/sed/manual/sed.html) and language
+[awk](https://linux.die.net/man/1/awk) I was not using them often.  Reading
+their chapters and implementing mentioned examples built little confidence in
+me. Now I am much comfortable in utilizing them. The irregular **Regular
+expressions** are everywhere.  You should not pass over this section and pay
+careful attention to various examples.  It is worth to invest your time in this
+segment.
+
+This is not the ending.  This book presents a glimpse of various scripting level
+programming languages like [Perl](https://www.perl.org/),
+[Python](http://python.org) and [Ruby](https://www.ruby-lang.org/en/). Because I
+am a python developer for a few years and I was not much interested in other
+languages, I skipped this section.  A shallow introduction to [GNU
+Octave](https://www.gnu.org/software/octave/) is nice to study if you are
+interested in knowing a little about this scientific programming language.
+
+
+### How to read this book?
+
+Do not read to read. This book contains nice shell examples.  By merely
+reading, you will end up without bringing about anything meaningful.  I will
+advise you to interpret the description first, observe the examples and then
+implement them on your own.  If you have any confusions, read the example and
+description again or obtain help from `man` or `info` are the best options.  To
+remember, I revised the important chapters more than once in a week.  It helped
+me to refresh what I learned before.  I will attempt to re-read the important
+sections once again after a few days to refresh my memory.
+
+
+### What is missing?
+
+Considerably, the book is nicely written, equally distributed
+and largely acceptable, but I would prefer to have a small set exercises section
+at the end of each topic.  Exercise might help the reader to identify their weak
+points early and refer on them again if they desire to.
+
+
+### Typo / Mistakes
+
+I didn't encounter any sever mistakes except one typo. The section of **Userful
+customizations** on page number 80 of my printed version, contains following
+example:
+
+```
+function manyargs {
+  $arg=$1
+  shift
+  ...
+}
+```
+
+Here, **$arg** is a misprint. A shell variable is never assigned with **$**. It
+should be `args=$1`.  I myself has corrected the typographical error in the
+book.  This change will be published maybe in the next release of this book.
+
+If you are encountering any mistakes while reading, I request you to fix the
+change [here](http://write.flossmanuals.net/command-line/introduction/). The
+interface for editing the book is beginner friendly. It took less than 5
+minutes to drive the change.
+
+
+### Where to buy/download?
+
+* [Buy printed
+  version](https://shop.fsf.org/books-docs/introduction-command-line).
+
+* [Read Online](http://write.flossmanuals.net/command-line/introduction/).
+
+* [Download
+  PDF](http://archive.flossmanuals.net/_booki/command-line/command-line.pdf)
+
+
+###### Proofreader: [Dhavan Vaidya](http://codingquark.com/)
+
+
+[vim]: http://vim.org/