The first video lecture [1] is titled "Introduction to Linux", yet, ironically, the instructor conducts the entire lecture using macOS. I guess the main purpose of this course is to teach uninitiated kids a thing or two about the *nix CLI, but for some reason the instructor has decided to call it the "Linux CLI". He also teaches some terrible shell scripting practices [2] such as parsing the output of ls [3] and not quoting variables.

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hTHAe-m56Vw

[2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rOxJW7PtA5s&t=169s

[3] http://mywiki.wooledge.org/ParsingLs

I worked at UW CSE from 1990-1994 as a staff member.

At the time, I saw students (at every level) woefully lacking in useful skills, and proposed to the dept. that I ran some sort of course (not necessarily for credit) that would help people understand shell programming, debugging, build processes, and more.

The idea was roundly shot down, with the central claim being that students picked all of this up as they went along, and that the journey was more important than the outcome.

I suppose I feel good that this stupid idea has passed, and that the department acknowledges the importance (for some students, at least) of this skillset.

Quite surprised to see UW materials on HN. I took the non-major equivalent of this course; it was an introduction to C, Bash, Linux, and assembly. It was quite helpful back then, although the web helped me expand on what I know as with most computer science topics.

I wish I could’ve taken the major version but, alas, I wasn’t offered a spot in UW’s CSE program despite all my passion and effort. I will refrain from turning this comment into a lament of the university’s capacity constrained major system.

Very similar to content and structure to MIT Missing Semester:

https://missing.csail.mit.edu/

I took this class back around 2010. Kind of random seeing it on HN. This is a good introduction to getting around a Linux (or any Unix-y) system. As far as I can remember, this was considered an "easy" class for most CS students but relatively important to teach practical industry fundamentals.

It was also somewhat important (but not at all required) since 300/400-level classes used a lot of Linux-based lab machines and this taught you how to get around if you weren't comfortable with them. Before that, most work was done [when I was there] in cross-platform IDEs and just paper/pencil (proofs, maths, and such), so I remember this coming a bit later for that reason.

It also used to be called 303, which made a bit more sense when I was there in the context of being an early 300-level class to get you primed for the later ones. UW CSE went through a big renumbering and restructuring the year I graduated so I don't fully know how it fits in anymore.

Since I took it, it looks like they've added Git and removed a C, gdb, and Make which is a bit sad, but probably more practical...

I'm sure a lot more changed. Fun to see this pop up, though!

I think this type of course should come very early in a CS program. Yes, many students learn these things on their own, but many don’t, and it’s a good idea to put them on equal footing.

Being able to efficiently use common software tools allows students to learn more effectively in other courses, so a class like this provides a leverage to the other classes. Yes a lot of CS is theory, but it’s pretty hard to learn about that without having a solid grasp of the tools.

I teach a course at the University of Waterloo targeting psychology undergrads with little to no experience using their computers as research tools.Maybe some of the content would be useful to others looking for beginners' material? The entry page is https://brittanderson.github.io/Intro2Computing4Psychology/b... and the files are all on github and the videos on vimeo.

I think (some of?) this material was formerly covered in CSE 303 (now discontinued), when I took it in 2009: https://courses.cs.washington.edu/courses/cse303/

This seems like quite a lot (but not all) of stuff you should be able to teach yourself; I'd say university classes should focus on more challenging/profound topics.

[flagged]