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<h1><a href="/and/">i . like tight pants . net</a></h1>
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<h4 class="author" property="dc:created" content="2011-10-26T19:20:28">October 26, 2011</h4>
<h4 class="author">by <span property="dc:creator">tellyou</span></h4>
<p> </p>
<hr />
<h4>Other articles by tellyou</h4>
<dl>
<dt><a href="/and/hybrid-publishing-back-to-the-future-publishing-theses-at-the-kabk">Hybrid Publishing Back To The Future Publishing Theses at the KABK</a></dt>
<dd>May 10, 2018 10:07 AM</dd>
<dt><a href="/and/the-underwater-screen-or-lessons-from-wordperfect">The Underwater Screen Or Lessons From Wordperfect </a></dt>
<dd>June 10, 2014 6:21 PM</dd>
<dt><a href="/and/graphic-design-is-a-nostalgic-field"> Graphic Design Is A Nostalgic Field </a></dt>
<dd>February 19, 2014 7:02 PM</dd>
<dt><a href="/and/release-early-release-often-version-numbers-for-typefaces">Release Early Release Often Version Numbers For Typefaces</a></dt>
<dd>September 25, 2013 7:53 PM</dd>
<dt><a href="/and/the-story-of-nokia-microsoft-and-a-1000-hearts-breaking">The Story of Nokia, Microsoft and a 1000 Hearts Breaking</a></dt>
<dd>September 4, 2013 8:02 PM</dd>
<dt><a href="/and/etherpad-or-the-textarea-is-a-lonely-place">Etherpad Or The Textarea Is A Lonely Place</a></dt>
<dd>April 22, 2013 7:59 PM</dd>
<dt><a href="/and/how-it-has-come-about-that-code-hosting-site-github-offers-visualisations-of-typeface-development">How it Has Come About That Code Hosting Site Github Offers Visualisations of Typeface Development</a></dt>
<dd>August 4, 2012 7:28 PM</dd>
<dt><a href="/and/figuring-out-fontforge-pythons-representation-of-postscript-curves">Figuring Out Fontforge-Python’s Representation of Postscript Curves</a></dt>
<dd>June 3, 2012 3:06 PM</dd>
<dt><a href="/and/my-favourite-wikipedia-user-user-rama">My Favourite Wikipedia User User:Rama</a></dt>
<dd>February 23, 2012 10:43 PM</dd>
<dt><a href="/and/making-unix-programs">Making unix programs</a></dt>
<dd>February 2, 2012 12:33 PM</dd>
<dt><a href="/and/installing-compilers">Installing compilers</a></dt>
<dd>December 1, 2011 2:13 PM</dd>
<dt><a href="/and/we-like-tight-pants-and-mathematics">We like tight pants and mathematics</a></dt>
<dd>November 23, 2011 9:27 AM</dd>
<dt><a href="/and/learning-how-to-program">Learning how to program</a></dt>
<dd>August 11, 2011 9:04 AM</dd>
<dt><a href="/and/honest-artist-statements">Honest artist statements</a></dt>
<dd>July 9, 2010 4:15 PM</dd>
<dt><a href="/and/juxtapositions">Juxtapositions</a></dt>
<dd>March 14, 2010 8:32 PM</dd>
<dt><a href="/and/heroes">Heroes</a></dt>
<dd>March 8, 2010 7:06 PM</dd>
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<h4>tellyou’s comments</h4>
<ul>
<li>Hey Silvio, thanks for your comment. Coincidentally, Ned’s comment higher ... <a href="/and/hackers-culture-and-the-fear-of-wysiwyg#comment-319" title="full comment on: Hacker Culture and the Fear of WYSIWYG">read more</a></li>
<li>There is weird paradox here: When learning programming with Python, ... <a href="/and/48-hours-of-writing-stylesheets-with-etherpad-and-a-gong#comment-265" title="full comment on: 48 Hours of Writing Stylesheets with Etherpad and a Gong">read more</a></li>
<li>There is weird paradox here: When learning programming with Python, ... <a href="/and/48-hours-of-writing-stylesheets-with-etherpad-and-a-gong#comment-264" title="full comment on: 48 Hours of Writing Stylesheets with Etherpad and a Gong">read more</a></li>
<li>What do you do with that script? Where does it ... <a href="/and/48-hours-of-writing-stylesheets-with-etherpad-and-a-gong#comment-262" title="full comment on: 48 Hours of Writing Stylesheets with Etherpad and a Gong">read more</a></li>
<li>For the webfonts, ufo2otf will automatically perform a number of ... <a href="/and/ufo2otf-makes-otfs-webfonts-and-css-from-ufo#comment-260" title="full comment on: ufo2otf Makes OTF’s, Webfonts and CSS From UFO’s">read more</a></li>
<li>Isn’t one of the reasons for the small number of ... <a href="/and/no-one-starts-from-scratch-type-design-and-the-logic-of-the-fork#comment-249" title="full comment on: No-one Starts From Scratch: Type Design and the Logic of the Fork">read more</a></li>
<li>I like how Martin Majoor and Ben Archer use the ... <a href="/and/no-one-starts-from-scratch-type-design-and-the-logic-of-the-fork#comment-246" title="full comment on: No-one Starts From Scratch: Type Design and the Logic of the Fork">read more</a></li>
<li>You are on the trolly side of life today, bnf <a href="/and/i-need-my-generic-font-medicine#comment-244" title="full comment on: I Need My Generic Font Medicine">read more</a></li>
<li>And how did you make the video? <a href="/and/48-hours-of-writing-stylesheets-with-etherpad-and-a-gong#comment-224" title="full comment on: 48 Hours of Writing Stylesheets with Etherpad and a Gong">read more</a></li>
<li>So if you were all writing these styles on an ... <a href="/and/48-hours-of-writing-stylesheets-with-etherpad-and-a-gong#comment-222" title="full comment on: 48 Hours of Writing Stylesheets with Etherpad and a Gong">read more</a></li>
</ul>
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<h4>Other writers</h4>
<ul>
<li>glit</li>
<li>jenseits</li>
<li>habitus</li>
<li>tellyou</li>
<li>baseline</li>
<li>bnf</li>
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<a href="/and/physical-hyperlinks-that-glitter">Previous</a>
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<h4 property="mt:entry_title">The voice of the shell</h4>
<article property="mt:entry_id" content="30" class="entry" id="entry-30">
<p>I tell my students that the command line is the way to go. I am not the kind of person who thinks the command-line is somehow a more true experience though—it’s another modality, another way of accessing and manipulating the data on your machine.</p>
<p>The query-response format is wonderful. I amaze students with the whoami command—the computer knows the answer! This gives the impression, to some, that the console allows you to have conversations with your computer.</p>
<p>I do often feel like I am talking to the computer. But when the computer talks balk to me, from time to time the voice of the computer gives way to the voice of the programmer who wrote it. Or at least, my image of this programmer. This is the output of a 7zip command:</p>
<pre>7-Zip 4.44 beta Copyright © 1999-2007 Igor Pavlov 2007-01-20
p7zip Version 4.44 (locale=nl_NL.UTF-8,Utf16=on,HugeFiles=on,2 CPUs)
Processing archive: Fedora 9.7z
Extracting Fedora 9/Fedora 9.vmkd
Extracting Fedora 9/Fedora 9.nvram
Extracting Fedora 9/users.txt
Extracting Fedora 9/Fedora 9.vmx.lck/M00232.lck
Extracting Fedora 9/Fedora 9.vmx
Extracting Fedora 9/Fedora 9.vmxf
Extracting Fedora 9/Fedora 9.vmsd
Extracting Fedora 9/Fedora 9.vmx.lck
Extracting Fedora 9
Everything is Ok</pre>
<p>I am moved by the program telling me everything is ok. I am not sure if Igor Pavlov meant to give me consolation from the console—after all, the sentence is logically equivalent to ‘there are no errors’. It could be a simple observation.</p>
<p>In any case it’s endearing: I imagine the programmer as a pretty dark-haired boy. He is shy and his eyes that hide already behind large glasses avoid your gaze. And Igor is not so handy with words, but he means good with the world. </p>
<p>But the encounter is not always so nice. The reason I install Fedora is because I have to compile some Perl modules to put on my shared hosting service to make Movable Type work (all of this takes place some time back). The interactive mode of CPAN has the most condescending error messages ever.</p>
<p>Yet nothing beats Telnet. When typing in RCPT: instead of the required RCPT TO: I get:</p>
<pre>Error: I can break rules, too. Goodbye.</pre>
<p>And my connection is closed. I feel like I can actually strangle the programmer responsible for this behaviour. The rude message is a catalyst for my negative passions. I imagine the programmer delighting in his sense of control over me and I want to smash the keyboard on his head.</p>
<p>I project in my mind this monster: crouched behind his computer, staring intently at the screen, a system administrator, overweight and unkempt hair, staring maniacally at the screen, laughing out loud about this error message that is going to upset the people using his code. But I have been awake too long. I made him in my own image; look at me: I’m also alone, staring maniacally at the screen, making up these stories about computer programmers.</p>
<p>With minds so volatile and temperaments so inflammable, it’s important we stay nice to each other. If the only way we talk to each other is through error messages, we better make these exceptionally kind.</p>
<div id="aside">
<p>The shell is the text-based environment in which you give commands to your computer. Quite similar to the way the DOS operating system worked. On a contemporary Linux or Mac OS X system you have access to a fully functioning shell (Applications, Accesoires, Terminal).</p>
<p>This article was written for <a href="http://libregraphicsmag.com/" title="Libre Graphics Magazine">Libre Graphics Magazine</a>. A magazine dedicated to showcasing graphic design done with free and open source tools. <a href="http://libregraphicsmag.com/buy.html" title="Libre Graphics Magazine: now.">Buy</a>, <a href="http://libregraphicsmag.com/download.html" title="Libre Graphics Magazine">download</a>!</p>
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