Process command line arguments in shell
Classified in : Homepage, Debian, Command line, To remember
When writing a wrapper script, one often has to process the command line arguments to transform them according to his needs, to change some arguments, to remove or insert some, or perhaps to reorder them.
Tiling window managers
Classified in : Homepage, Debian, Command line
Floating and tiling window managers
In the X Window System, the window manager is that piece of software that places your windows and allows you to move them, resize them, hide them, etc. If your windows have titles on top of them, with buttons to close them or reduce them, it is thanks to the window manager. There are two major types of window managers:
- Floating window managers
- They are the most usual window managers, that allow you to place an size your windows freely on the screen, in a way where they are independent of each other, possibly overlapping, just as you would be able to place sheets of paper on your desk.
- Tiling window managers
- They are a more elitist type of window manager, that adjust the size and position of the windows so there is no overlapping and no space lost between windows, thus tiling the screen.
Floating window management
Tiling window management
The frontier between these two types is not very tight, because some floating window managers have limited tiling features, and almost all the tiling window manager have floating modes for programs that are not adapted to tiling.
For what it is worth, here is a report on my experience with three tiling window managers. Perhaps it may help people that are still hesitating to switch to tiling window management?
Startup scripts of Bash and Zsh
Classified in : Homepage, Debian, Command line, To remember
Both Bash and Zsh use several startup scripts: profile, bashrc, zlogin, zshrc, etc.
The existence of several startup scripts exists to allow you to apply specific actions for interactive or login shells. For instance, you may want to set up a fancy colour prompt or to enable a powerful completion system for interactive shells only, as it would be pointless to apply it to non-interactive shells (that is, for shell scripts). Or you may want to display a joke and the weather forecast at login, but not each time you spawn a shell by other means.