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> Composability: I’m far from a zealot singing the praises of the Unix philosophy, but most terminal apps produce output that I can process in some way to get i
by jancsika 8y ago
> Composability: I’m far from a zealot singing the praises of the Unix philosophy, but most terminal apps produce output that I can process in some way to get into another program.
Composability within the conceptual framework of the terminal itself (e.g., using a pipe).
But suppose I want to shuttle text back and forth across the terminal/GUI domain.
Do I even have a reliable way to select and copy text that extends past the viewport of a terminal? Even the method of copying a selection isn't cross-platform in terminals (e.g., among terminals running in Linux/OSX/Windows).
Compare that to the holy trinity of <ctrl_or_cmd-a>, <ctrl_or_cmd-c> and <ctrl_or_cmd-v> in any viewport of any web browser.
Plus, you can't even depend on a particular feature being available to a terminal of a single platform. Take the example of middle-click selection pasting from the terminal. Can I depend on distros to never bother me by removing that feature? If so, what is the standard that governs the requirement for this feature?
- TeMPOraL 8y ago> Composability within the conceptual framework of the terminal itself (e.g., using a pipe). Personally, I think that operating systems (and browsers) failed in enforcing such a framework, or at least strongly suggesting it. Compare with Emacs, which is a prime example of how interoperable software could be, if it adhered to a common paradigm more. There's a reason people run tasklists, e-mail, IRC, shell, time tracking, invoicing and others straight from it. It's not because they're crazy. It's because the overarching UX principles enable greater productivity and integration than it's possible elsewhere.