OT: why tar is strange (was: The REALLY bad thing about Python lists ..)

[Grant Griffin]

Juanjo Álvarez wrote:
> 
> Grant Griffin dijo sobre OT: why tar is strange (was: The REALLY bad thing about Python lists ..),
> en fecha: Sat, 20 May 2000 08:40:54 +0100
> 
> |With all due respect to the Windows-bashers of the world, I personally
> |think that trading flexibility for convenience is a very good tradeoff:
> |it makes me productive.
> 
> While you launch and use winzip I can type 5 times "tar zxvf" (or
> "unzip") on my xterm (with the command completion, of course).
> 
> In fact, there are GUIs for gzip and tar on Unix, for example,
> KArchiver. But very few use them once they learn to do "tar zxvf". Its
> simply faster.
> 
> Force a Unix lover to use Windows... the first thing he probably does is
> to install the GNUtils.
> 
> Force a Windows lover to use a (even with the GUI tools) Unix... after a short
> time he probably will be using the magic "tar zxvf" anyway.
> 
> And I see that constantly on my job, were we have Windows NT and Linux
> boxes (err... computers).
> 
> don't-underrate-the-power-and-speed-of-a-good-CLI'ly y's Juanjo

Well, I'm an old DOS man, so I tend to flatter myself that I have a
balanced view of the command-line-versus-GUI thing.  I still use DOS for
many of my little "system administration" tasks, but I also use the GUI
stuff for a major part of it.  Maybe its about a 60/40 split for me
overall.

But in the specific case of dealing with zip's or other compressed
files, I tend to use WinZip more than Pkzip.  I tend to use Pkzip mainly
for the case where I am making my own little archive (maybe to put on a
floppy), and then when I'm extracting from my own.  But when extracting
from someone _else's_ archive, I think the GUI thing clearly has the
command-line approach beat.

don't-underrate-the-power-and-speed-of-a-mixed-paradigm-wherein
   -you-do-whatever-makes-the-most-sense-at-any-given-moment
   -(which-is-*not*-to-be-read-as-an-endorsement-of-perl-<wink>)
   -ly y'rs,

=g2
-- 
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Grant R. Griffin                                       g2 at dspguru.com
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