Unix Levels

• beginner
  • insecure with the concept of a terminal
  • has yet to learn the basics of vi
  • has not figured out how to get a directory
  • still has trouble with typing after each line of input
• novice
  • knows that "ls" will produce a directory
  • uses the editor, but calls it "vye"
  • has heard of "C" but never used it
  • has had a bad experience with rm
  • is wondering how to read mail
  • is wondering why the person next door seems to like Unix so very much
• user
  • uses vi and nroff, but inexpertly
  • has heard of regular expressions but never seen one.
  • has figured out that '-' precedes options
  • has attempted to write a C program but decided to stick with Pascal
  • is wondering how to move a directory
  • thinks that dbx is a brand of stereo component
  • knows how to read mail and is wondering how to read the news
• knowledgeable user
  • uses nroff with no trouble, and is beginning to learn tbl and eqn
  • uses grep to search for fixed strings
  • has figured out that mv(1) will move directories
  • has learned that "learn" doesn't help
  • somebody has shown her how to write C programs
  • once used sed but checked the file afterward
  • watched somebody use dbx once
  • tried "make" but used spaces instead of tabs
• expert
  • uses sed when necessary
  • uses macros in vi, uses ex when necessary
  • posts news at every possible opportunity
  • is still wondering how to successfully reply to mail
  • writes csh scripts occasionally
  • writes C programs using vi and compiles with make
  • has figured out what && and || are for
  • uses fgrep because somebody said it was faster
• hacker
  • uses sed and awk with comfort
  • uses undocumented features of vi
  • writes C code with "cat >" and compiles with "!cc"
  • uses adb because she doesn't trust source debuggers
  • figured out how environment variables are propagated
  • writes her own nroff macros to supplement the standard ones
  • writes Bourne shell scripts
  • installs bug fixes from the net
  • uses egrep because she timed it
• guru
  • uses m4 and lex with comfort
  • writes assembler code with "cat >"
  • uses adb on the kernel while the system is loaded
  • customizes Unix utilities by patching the source
  • reads device driver source with breakfast
  • uses "ed" because "ex" is a Berkeleyism
  • can answer any unix question after a little thought
  • uses make for anything that requires two or more commands
  • has learned how to breach security but no longer needs to try
  • is putting James Woods/Henry Spencer egrep into her next Unix release
• wizard
  • writes device drivers with "cat >"
  • fixes bugs by patching the binaries
  • posts her changes to Unix utilities to the net -- and they work
  • can tell what question you are about to ask, and answer it
  • writes her own troff macro packages
  • is on a first-name basis with Dennis, Bill, and Ken