ID computer

From: Sean 'Captain Napalm' Conner <spc_at_conman.org>
Date: Wed May 23 11:59:30 2001

It was thus said that the Great John Foust once stated:
>
> At 07:32 PM 5/22/01 -0700, Sellam Ismail wrote:
> >Like selecting multiple items, then dragging and dropping them. Well,
> >it's easier at least. Otherwise, I can do everything faster in a command
> >line.
>
> OK, let's race. I think it's easy to think of counter-examples,
> even though I'm a fan of command-line power in the right situation.
>
> Given a folder full of 100 documents with long, human-friendly
> filenames with no relevant pattern involving strings of characters
> or dates, delete a given random set of 50 of those files. I'll use
> any windowing system, you'll use 'del' or 'rm'. I think an extended
> select (via CTRL) and a drag to the trash would win on either Mac or
> Windows, don't you?
>
> While 'rm' might have an interactive "yes/no" option, which
> other command-line tools have it? Sure, you can write anything
> in a script...

  Again, it depends. A modern CLI (under Unix) with filename completion may
be just as fast:

  rm "Report<tab>"Picture of<tab>Ste<tab>"Picture of my<tab>on<tab>...

  And so on. Okay, so I'm a fast touch typist so it might be an even race
(even if the list is alphabetical on the GUI side). But if the list is in a
file, it would be just as easy to do:

        rm `cat list-o-files`

  And be done with it, no convoluted shell scripts 8-)

  Or, you did say delete a random set of 50 of those files, so:

        rm `ls -f -1 | head -50`

  Delete the first 50 files in the order that they appear on the disk, and
not alphabetically (which, depending on the order they were created, is just
as random).

  -spc (I guess it depends upon how much you know of the environment)
Received on Wed May 23 2001 - 11:59:30 BST