Please don't think that I'm a hardcore pedant, but... SWC, in fact, teaches Command Line Interface (CLI), not just some abstract "Shell" (to teach "Shell", we'd have to unset PATH). And CLI comes hand-in-hand with REPL<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Read%E2%80%93eval%E2%80%93print_loop>. If you abstract away from "human vs. computer" thing, each "party" in REPL waits for some input from the other party, processes it and provides feedback. So, there is a continuous feedback loop that is built into CLI. This is, in my opinion, the true beauty of CLI. Toyota and others have to enforce this feedback loop (to stay competitive, lower prices, "improve").
What we (humans) decide to do with the free time we get as a benefit from using computers - is totally up to us. We could use it to do some "important work" (e.g. improve Unix toolset)... or think about abstract things as an exercise to the brain 🙄. The latter exercise is what computers can't do. Yet. Maxim On Mar 25, 2018, at 11:14, Andrew Francis <andrew.fran...@mail.mcgill.ca<mailto:andrew.fran...@mail.mcgill.ca>> wrote: Hi Nathan: I have a graduate background in operations management including a green belt in Total Quality Management (TQM). I admit I am not a practitioner and it has been a while since I have thought about this stuff. I have not read "The Toyota Way," but I am familiar with kaizen (as practised on a factory floor as opposed to the software methodology) and continuous improvement methodologies. For me, the core of TQM is a cycle based around describing, measuring, analysing, improving and controlling a process. I feel the UNIX shell and its utilities is a tool set to achieve specific manual and automated tasks. One wants to be competent with a shell much in the same way one wants to be competent with a lathe or a CNC machine used in a work flow. So I think there is a little bit of stretching analogies here. I think you could make a better argument if you said that continuous improvement methodologies should be used to better the quality of SWC programmes themselves. Cheers, Andrew ________________________________ From: Discuss <discuss-boun...@lists.software-carpentry.org<mailto:discuss-boun...@lists.software-carpentry.org>> on behalf of Moore, Nathan T <nmo...@winona.edu<mailto:nmo...@winona.edu>> Sent: 25 March 2018 09:30 To: discuss@lists.software-carpentry.org<mailto:discuss@lists.software-carpentry.org> Cc: bkallenbe...@udayton.edu<mailto:bkallenbe...@udayton.edu>; Ferstl, Andrew D; Phan, Chris L Subject: [Discuss] Why do we have to do the Shell lesson? connection to Toyota, Kaizen? I've been reading "The Toyota Way to Continuous Improvement" by Liker & Franz. I think there's a connection between the stories in this book and the SWC Shell lesson that we insist is in every workshop. The book describes Lean/6-sigma/Kaizen strategies for improving the efficiency of a business. I'm just a dumb physicist who's never worked in manufacturing, so I'm sure I don't really understand the techniques. To me, it sounds like the general practice is to have collaborative meetings, look for more efficient ways to move material across the shop floor, and look for ways to make/deliver the same (or better) product with fewer people. After this, implement and see if these ideas work. In about half of the case studies, these increases in efficiency lead to layoffs and corporate profits. Yuk! In the other half of the case studies, (this is the "Toyota Way"), instead of layoffs, the freed up capital, space, and people-hours are used to look for other places where the product/manufacturing process can be improved. In practice at places like Toyota this cycle of product/process improvement is continuous and the continuous improvement (and resource freeing) drives a productive, continuous feedback loop. What does this have to do with the shell? Why should you learn the shell? The rationale feels like the same as Kaizen - if you embrace the shell commands, you will have more free time, which allows you to do other important work and find other repetitive and mundane things to automate with Shell/python etc. If you work in operations engineering or similar and feel I have this all wrong, please educate me! Hope you are all enjoying your day. Nathan Moore Physics, Winona State _______________________________________________ Discuss mailing list Discuss@lists.software-carpentry.org<mailto:Discuss@lists.software-carpentry.org> http://lists.software-carpentry.org/listinfo/discuss
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