Consider changing the way we introduce `mkdir -p`

[nbraunsc]

How could the content be improved?

During my teaching demo, I found that when we introduce the mkdir -p concept it was confusing (and the instructor also agreed). I also saw there was another issue raised about this section in April.

When we say:

Note that mkdir is not limited to creating single directories one at a time. The -p option allows mkdir to create a directory with nested subdirectories in a single operation:

$ mkdir -p ../project/data ../project/results

It is pretty confusing for the following reasons:

1. We are combining two different concepts that may be overlooked. We are using the -p command (without explaining what it actually stands for) and we are creating two directories at the same time. The main idea about how -p allows you to create directories in a different location might be overlooked.
2. We never cd into the /project directory first to show what the current folders/files are, therefore it is not super straight forward that it actually created them.
3. We also never end up using these directories.

A few suggestions could be something like we first cd ../projects and then ls to show the contents. Then we cd ../ and pwd to show that we are in /Users/nelle/Desktop/shell-lesson-data/exercise-data/. Then introduce the path idea (without the ../) so it would be mkdir -p /projects/data. Followed by ls -FR project/.

Then if you wanted to show that you can make multiple directories at the same time (although, I don't think this is super important), then you could run mkdir -p projects/results projects/conclusions.

I personally almost never use the -p command but if we do want to teach it, then I think some reorganizing about this concept would be beneficial to the learners. Thanks!

Which part of the content does your suggestion apply to?

https://github.com/swcarpentry/shell-novice/blob/main/episodes/03-create.md