Mark Bixby wrote:
>
> Don't be embarrassed to ask stupid Linux questions on HP3000-L.  After all,
> those kinds of postings are WAY more on-topic than the Pledge of Allegiance,
> etc.  ;-)
>
> Seriously, other MPE users thinking about migrating to Linux probably have the
> same kinds of Linux newbie questions.  Sure, you probably want to ask deeply
> technical Linux questions in the Linux-specific forums, but I think there is
> transition value in having MPE users see other MPE users asking basic Linux
> questions.

Linux isn't exactly intuitive, at least while climbing the learning
curve.  A favorite example of mine (that I might have used before) was
needed just last week - because of state budget woes (legislature not
passing the budget) they wanted to know how many students were enrolled
in the last morning or evening term an expecting to graduate (would have
been a controversy, as well as students getting full-time/part-time aid
as the cancelled courses could drop them below their mandated hour load.

We could create files of currently enrolled students, we could build
files of graduation candidates, and we could build files of students
receiving aid for the summer.  But what to do know?  Posix!

shell/ix>  cat CURNTAM CURGCANS|sort|uniq -d|wc -l
           cat CURNTPM CURGCANS|sort|uniq -d|wc -l
           cat CURNTAM CURFINAID|sort|uniq -d|wc -l
           cat CURNTPM CURFINAID|sort|uniq -d|wc -l

This gets IDs from both files, sorts, and tells you how many duplicates
satisfy both criteria.  If you write the results to a file rather than
using wc -l on them, you can then CAT AMGCANS PMGCANS|sort|uniq|wc -l
to get the number of students in *either* term who are graduation
candidates, etc.

And these are just shell commands, no fancy awk scripts or regexps.

It is just a "different" mindset.

Jeff

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