2.11BSD#431 - /usr/man/cat1/learn.0

LEARN(1)	    UNIX Programmer's Manual		 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 edi-
     tors.  To get started simply type learn.  If you had used
     learn before and left your last session without completing a
     subject, the program will use information in $HOME/.learnrc
     to start you up in the same place you left off.  Your first
     time through, learn will ask questions to find out what you
     want to do.  Some questions may be bypassed by naming a sub-
     ject, and more yet by naming a lesson.  You may enter the
     lesson as a number that learn gave you in a previous ses-
     sion.  If you do not know the lesson number, you may enter
     the lesson as a word, and learn will look for the first les-
     son 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' ter-
     minates a learn session and `where' tells you of your pro-
     gress, with `where m' telling you more.  The command `again'
     re-displays the text of the lesson and `again lesson' lets
     you review lesson.  There is no way for learn to tell you
     the answers it expects in English, however, the command
     `hint' prints the last part of the lesson script used to
     evaluate a response, while `hint m' prints the whole lesson
     script.  This is useful for debugging lessons and might pos-
     sibly give you an idea about what it expects.

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

FILES
     /usr/share/learn	 subtree for all dependent directories
     and files
     /usr/tmp/pl*   playpen directories
     $HOME/.learnrc startup information


Printed 11/26/99	October 22, 1996			1


LEARN(1)	    UNIX Programmer's Manual		 LEARN(1)


SEE ALSO
     csh(1), ex(1)
     B. W. Kernighan and M. E. Lesk, LEARN - Computer-Aided
     Instruction on UNIX

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 ini-
     tiate 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.
     Occasionally a lesson script does not recognize all the dif-
     ferent correct responses, in which case the `hint' command
     may be useful.  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.

     The `vi' lessons are provided separately from the others.
     To use them see your system administrator.


Printed 11/26/99	October 22, 1996			2