4 ms·
On the command line, using spaces to delimit words is also quite natural; that's why they get used as a delimiter: mv old-file new-file Spaces separate th
by gdwatson 9y ago
On the command line, using spaces to delimit words is also quite natural; that's why they get used as a delimiter:
mv old-file new-file
Spaces separate the verb, the direct object, and the indirect object. Using commas or colons instead would painfully artificial.
So the question is whether you will favor naturalness on the command line or in the GUI. It's no surprise that a Unix build tool favors the command line.
- reificator 9y agoTrue, but on the command line I don't have to worry about the spaces. I'm just going to tab-complete to simultaneously ensure I'm in the context I expect to be in, ensure I'm not making any typos, and save some time to boot.
- jtolmar 9y agoWhat if your file system didn't distinguish between underscores and spaces, your GUI displayed them as spaces, and your command line displayed underscores? Then this problem goes away entirely and you instead have the problem of not being allowed to have "this_file" and "this file" in the same directory. A problem which probably doesn't matter.
- lucideer 9y agoThat hides the problem from the user, and will consequently lead to command line users typing spaces where they should be typing underscores.