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How to learn command line

Let me get this out of the way first: you don’t need to know command line to be a good developer.

GitHub has an awesome GUI. Tools like CodeKit and Prepos let you compile Sass, concatenate and minify JavaScript, and more. You can be a successful developer without command line.

However… once I learned command line, a new world of options opened up to me that didn’t exist before. CodeKit and Prepos are great, but tools like Gulp give me a lot more control over how I build stuff. Pandoc makes it super easy to write my pocket guides in markdown and render ebooks in a variety of formats.

It let’s me configure my DigitalOcean server the way I want and setup some cool automations with Hugo.

You don’t have to learn command line, but if you want to, today I wanted to share two great resources for learning.

First up, Learn Command Line by Tracy Osborn is a free ebook. I honestly cannot believe this thing doesn’t cost money. It’s super approachable, very well written, and covers the basics without making you feel like an idiot.

I wish this existed when I was learning. I had to hack together what I know from StackOverflow answers.

If you’re more a visual learner, I’ve heard nothing but great things about Terminal Training by Remy Sharp. I haven’t personally taken this one, but it’s made specifically for people who find terminal intimidating, and Remy is an awesome guy.

It’s already pretty affordable, but I’ve been told if you search his website you can find a pretty sizable discount code.

If I were learning command line today, I’d use one of these two tools to do it.