LEARN(1)

NAME
learn - computer aided instruction about UNIX

SYNOPSIS
learn [ -directory ] [ subject [ lesson ] ]

DESCRIPTION
Learn gives Computer Aided Instruction courses and practice in the use of UNIX, the C Shell, and the Berkeley text editors. To get started simply type learn. The program will ask questions to find out what you want to do. Some questions may be bypassed by naming a subject, and more yet by naming a lesson. You may enter the lesson as a number that learn gave you in a previous session. If you do not know the lesson number, you may enter the lesson as a word, and learn will look for the first lesson containing it. If the lesson is `-', learn prompts for each lesson; this is useful for debugging.

The subject's presently handled are

           files
           editor
           vi
           morefiles
           macros
           eqn
           C

There are a few special commands. The command `bye' terminates a learn session and `where' tells you of your progress, with `where m' telling you more. The command `again' re-displays the text of the lesson and `again lesson' lets you review lesson.

The -directory option allows one to exercise a script in a nonstandard place.

FILES
/usr/lib/learn	subtree for all dependent directories and files
/usr/tmp/pl*	playpen directories

SEE ALSO
csh(1), ex(1)

BUGS
The main strength of learn, that it asks the student to use the real UNIX, also makes possible baffling mistakes. It is helpful, especially for nonprogrammers, to have a UNIX initiate near at hand during the first sessions.

Occasionally lessons are incorrect, sometimes because the local version of a command operates in a non-standard way. Such lessons may be skipped with the `skip' command, but it takes some sophistication to recognize the situation.

To find a lesson given as a word, learn does a simple fgrep(1) through the lessons. It is unclear whether this sort of subject indexing is better than none.

Spawning a new shell is required for each of many user and internal functions.