diff --git a/manuscript/00-foreword.md b/manuscript/00-foreword.md index 5d9e2bc..5149c07 100644 --- a/manuscript/00-foreword.md +++ b/manuscript/00-foreword.md @@ -3,33 +3,49 @@ # Foreword -Nearly all my friends use tmux. I remember going out at night for drinks and the -three of us would take a seat at a round table and take out our smart phones. -This was back when phones still had physical "QWERTY" keyboards. - -Despite our home computers being asleep or turned off, our usernames in the IRC -channel we frequently visited persisted in the chatroom list. Our screens were -lit by a kaleidoscope of colors on a black background. We ssh'd with ConnectBot -into our cloud servers and reattached by running [`screen(1)`](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GNU_Screen). -As it hit 2AM, our Turkish coffee arrived, the `|away` status indicator trailing -our online nicknames disappeared. - -It was funny noticing, even though we knew each other by our real names, we -sometimes opted to call each other by our nicks. It's something about how -personal relationships, formed online, persist in real life. - -It seemed as if it were orchestrated, but each of us fell into the same ebb and -flow of living our lives. No one told us to do it, but bit by bit, we -incrementally optimized our lifestyles, personally and professionally, to arrive -at destinations seeming eerily alike. - -Like many things in life, when we act on autopilot, we sometimes arrive at -similar destinations. This is often unplanned. - -So, when I write an educational book about a computer application, I hope to -write it for human beings. Not to sell you on tmux, convince you to like it or -hate it, but to tell you what it is and how some people use it. I'll leave the -rest to you. +The terminal is a direct link to your system. It's characterized by high +contrast, fixed width text, raw input and output, flexibility, yet stringent. +Precise by nature - it acts upon what we say, not what we mean. + +It's ignorant of your intentions. It's developers designed it for utility, and it +happens in a setting where happiness and convenience is tied legacy implementations +on terminal displays, the UNIX / DOS legacy, and an ever growing set of new +developers using terminals despite having graphical options. + +Terminals are mainstream. They're not going away. + +Microsoft and Windows Terminal. The Rust community and its writing of shell and +CLI utilities that are defying expectations. Version managers that handle +python, node, rust, PHP, and ruby versioning. Continual improvement on systems +such as ZSH, Bash, Fish, and other systems. There's just too many to mention, +and if I kept going, it'd be out of date in a month. + +There is still mystery to the terminal for me. When text turns into garbage, +cells corrupt recall an NES cartridge that decides to corrupt with a life of its +own. I launch a new terminal or pane, wave it off and keep going. What I mean to +say is: + +1. We're human. + + We aren't computers, we're thinking, and often have more than just our terminal open. + + We may have handbook or documentation open alongside a window manager. + We may be interfacing with other human being outside of the computer. + Pair coding. + Watching YouTube or a Podcast. +2. It's not feasible to know everything. + + Terminals are a way to get from point A to point B. We're using it for value, but + we won't upend our work, we'll probably procrastinate, and not understand + many of the systems underneath the hood. + + Some of us may eventually. + + Programming and IT rely more and more on a huge dependency tree + of software. We're on working with, and on top of, yet so far away from unix + parts. In the same way we have hearts and aren't cargiologists, have brains + and aren't neurologists, don't take it open yourself to stunt your own + learning by feeling you need to learn everything. ## About this book