Linux Journal | December 2012 | Issue 224 - ACM Digital Library

[ LETTERS ]That’s quite annoying. Otherwise,the content is perfect.—Klaus KolleKlaus, that isn’t normal. Somethingmust be going wrong. Perhaps trydeleting the app and removing itsdata, then re-installing it and seeif that helps. Sorry it’s been actingup on you. I agree, that would befrustrating!—Ed.Bash Notational Shortcuts, IIIIn Dave Taylor’s September Work theShell column, he wrote: “Drop me anote and tell me if you would preferus publishing sample scripts with all ofthese notational tricks, even at the riskof broad portability across environmentsand systems, or do you prefer more“standard” old-school scriptingtechniques that will even work on thatclunky old server you administer?”My short answer: please publishsample scripts “with all of thesenotational tricks”.My longer answer: as a 30-year veteranof writing shell programs (why demeana program written in a particularlanguage by calling it a “script?”) inC shell, Bourne, Korn, Bash and others,I think it is important to demonstrateclear, concise and efficient solutions toproblems. The last is best accomplishedin a shell programming language byemploying built-ins, so long as they arenot obfuscated.In closing, the first programminglanguage I used (8th grade) was APL.I wrote ray tracing code for opticalsystem design and loved it. However,I agree. Although APL is semanticallydense, it is the closest to a write-onlylanguage ever invented!Keep up the good work Dave.—Andrew PizialiAndroid Reader Makes Puppies CryI really enjoy your magazine andunderstand why it went digital.However, the Android reader app,especially on the Nexus 7, brings me nojoy. It crashes often, has trouble workingover Bluetooth networks on the Nexus7, and sometimes it gets stuck whiledownloading, and pages end up missing.It’s also quite slow. I have been grabbingthe PDFs, but having a central reader asintended would be nice.Anyhoo, hope it gets fixed soon.—KwanWWW.LINUXJOURNAL.COM / DECEMBER 2012 / 13