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The command line is great because it makes it easy to automate tasks involving multiple arbitrary applications. It's why we still use it even after GUIs basical
by Retra 8y ago
The command line is great because it makes it easy to automate tasks involving multiple arbitrary applications. It's why we still use it even after GUIs basically became mandatory on all user-facing computers.
- vram22 8y agoYes. IOW, GUI's are not as easily scriptable as CLI programs, to compose operations from combinations of other operations, even though some tools to do stuff like that do exist, e.g. AutoHotKey and others like it. A classic CLI command composition (a.k.a. pipeline) example: More shell, less egg: http://www.leancrew.com/all-this/2011/12/more-shell-less-egg/ http://www.leancrew.com/all-this/2011/12/more-shell-less-egg... After reading that post, I wrote about it here: https://jugad2.blogspot.com/2012/07/the-bentley-knuth-problem-and-solutions.html https://jugad2.blogspot.com/2012/07/the-bentley-knuth-proble... with a couple of solutions in Unix shell and Python. Related: Why you should learn just a little Awk (2010) (gregable.com) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17322412 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17322412 A comment by me there: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17324572 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17324572