Re: newbie tip

[will trillich <will@serensoft.com>]

On Sun, Jul 01, 2001 at 01:32:02AM +0200, "J?rgen A. Erhard" wrote:
>     will> i do have other tips that deal with this snag (some perl, some
>     will> vim) -- and if you'd like to recommend a different solution, i'd
>     will> be delighted to include it in my list (properly attributed, of
>     will> course)...
> 
> Never used anything else, and certainly wouldn't use tr for this.
> dos2unix is a lot simpler than this tr solution... "dos2unix
> dos.file", done.  (Of course you might have this in your list
> already...)

i do now. :)

but i don't have "dos2unix" on my debian potato, and i'm not
having a great deal of luck finding it at packages.debian.org
either... all i find is 'sysutils' but:

	$ apt-cache show sysutils
	This is a package incorporating various small utilities which are:
	 *  procinfo - Displays system information from /proc (v16).
	 *   memtest - Test system memory for errors (v1.0.1).
	 *      bogo - Shows the current bogomips rating without rebooting (v1.2).
	 * tofromdos - Converts DOS <-> Unix text files (v1.4).

> Alternatively, mention recode.  But... that's lots more powerful, and
> thus a lot more complicated.  (You *could* mention recode in a short
> sentence "For universal recoding problems, there's recode" or
> s.th. like that.

good idea.

> *Pointers* to advanced tools/topics are a good
> thing, IMHO... always give people the option to learn.  It's not our
> fault if people don't learn... but it is our fault if we don't show
> them where they can).

my philosophy exactly. i don't propose that each newbie tip be
the end-all and be-all for its particular topic; each will show
one approach (maybe two) that'll give the newbie some ideas to
pursue. for example -- i myself didn't realize that 'tr' was
available as a command-line facility; i only knew of the perl
function.  it's nice to see alternatives to the way i do things;
some day i'll encounter a new approach and i may decide that my
way is the old way, and this other way is now my new way.

short version: i ain't gonna take out no stinkin' "tr" tip
without a better reason other than "there's a simpler way to
accomplish that". :)

-- 
DEBIAN NEWBIE TIP #63 from Will Trillich <will@serensoft.com>
:
What's the best way to GET RESPONSES ON DEBIAN-USER? There are
several things to keep in mind:
	1) Debians are all volunteers because they enjoy what they
	   do; they don't owe you diddly (and you'll be one of us
	   when you start getting involved): ASK, and ye shall
	   recieve; DEMAND, and ye shall be rebuffed
	2) Provide evidence showing that you did put effort into
	   finding a solution to your problem (at least show yuo've
	   found TFM)
	3) Be known to offer pointers and assistance to others
	4) Give enough information so that someone else can figure
	   out what you're after; and make it legible
	5) Enjoy yourself and have fun -- it'll come across, and we
	   enjoy people who enjoy life; a petulant whiner seldom
	   gets any useful pointers other than "Out, miscreant!"

Also see http://newbieDoc.sourceForge.net/ ...