[plug] Unix Beginners Textbook?

[Trevor Phillips]

Christian wrote:
> 
> Assignments or exams which require memorisation of command line options
> etc. seem pretty silly and are particularly  unrealistic.  Teaching
> people to use (and depend on) the online manual pages is much more
> constructive than providing users with what are thinned-down, paper
> versions of the proper documentation.  If you need to provide students
> with exam questions which depend on this then you should provide printed
> versions of the manual pages required as part of the exam paper.  And,

You'd rather I ask essay questions?? ^_^ 
Short-answers with a definite answer are hard enough to mark, let alone all
essay questions. I do throw in a mix of things, tho.

I usually have some questions of the form "what does this do" and then have a
UNIX command, with certain options, which they have to nut out. More complex
examples mix multiple commands. So they need some reference for looking up
args; I don't expect them to memorise every common UNIX command with every
common argument.

I don't MAKE them buy a $80 book for a 10 credit (ie; small) unit; I recommend
them get something out of the library, or get something second-hand. 

Also, a good student will pass the exams no problem without a textbook, but a
lot of them cling to textbooks like a security blanket. I don't care if they
take a Calvin & Hobbes book into the exam. ^_^

So, know any Printed and Bound copy of all the man pages for common UNIX
commands then? That is an idea, tho; provide a printout of select man pages for
an exam...

--
. Trevor Phillips             -           http://jurai.murdoch.edu.au/ . 
: CWIS Technical Officer         -           T.Phillips at murdoch.edu.au : 
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