Windows PowerShell (practice mode: nothing here touches your real computer)
Lesson 13: Speed tricks
Level 2, Talk to Your Computer: PowerShell. Tab, the up arrow, cls and Ctrl+C: type less and go faster. The new word: Tab completion. It follows lesson 12, Write and read (echo and cat). Next comes lesson 14, Practice: the treasure mission.
What the lesson explains
Speed tricks. Pros don’t type faster. They type less.
Tab finishes names. Type the start of a name, then press the Tab key. On the card: cd Doc
Ctrl + C stops. It cancels a line, or stops a program that runs forever.
What you do first
Let Tab finish it. Type the start of a name at the prompt PS C:\Users\you> and press Tab: the terminal finishes the name.
The files on the practice computer
This lesson works in 2 folders. At the start, your home folder, C:\Users\you holds Desktop\, Documents\, Downloads\, Pictures\; Documents holds music\, my-project\, stories\, vault\.
You change nothing here, so lesson 14 finds the same files.
What you practise
Try it, "Let Tab finish it": Type the start of a name at the prompt PS C:\Users\you> and press Tab: the terminal finishes the name. Then: In the practice terminal, type cd .\Documents\ at the prompt PS C:\Users\you>; the prompt then reads PS C:\Users\you\Documents>.
Try it, "The up arrow brings it back": In the practice terminal, type dir at the prompt PS C:\Users\you\Documents> and the computer answers: Directory: C:\Users\you\Documents / Mode Name / ---- ---- / d---- music / d---- my-project / d---- stories / d---- vault. Then: Press the up arrow key: the last command comes back, ready to run again. Then: In the practice terminal, type dir at the prompt PS C:\Users\you\Documents> and the computer answers: Directory: C:\Users\you\Documents / Mode Name / ---- ---- / d---- music / d---- my-project / d---- stories / d---- vault.
Try it, "cls wipes the screen": In the practice terminal, type cls at the prompt PS C:\Users\you\Documents>; the prompt then reads PS C:\Users\you\Documents>.
Try it, "Cancel a line": Type anything, then press Ctrl and C together: the line is cancelled.
What PlayBuddy and PlayType say
PlayBuddy: "Pros don’t type faster. They type less!"
PlayType: "Type the start of a name, then press Tab. The terminal finishes it!"
PlayBuddy: "Control and C together is the emergency stop."
Help in every lesson
Everything happens on a pretend computer in your browser, so nothing touches your real files. PlayBuddy and PlayType stand beside the board, cheer you on and say when it is your turn.
A green ring shows where to click the first time. After that you do it on your own, and if you slip twice the ring comes back.
Stars
The lesson has 7 things to do. Up to one slip in ten gives three stars, up to one in four gives two, and finishing always gives at least one. Stars and progress are saved in this browser only; there is no account.
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