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While I am much more productive in Unix command line than in GUI I still am not sure if it is real productivity boost or I just have a skill and simply used to

• jstimpfle 8y ago
  The command-line is a huge productivity boost: 1) The programmer does not need to synchronize with the results displayed on screen. That's because the command-line is technically not that interactive. Input is coming from a serial line. As long as the programmer knows by heart the state transitions that his previous inputs will effect, he can simply continue typing without caring if the effected state is already displayed on screen. This is serious because typical systems can often not keep up with user input since processing is jerky and many operations simply take a certain amount of time. But GUIs with their focus based input model absolutely require that the state is updated on screen before the programmer can continue with inputs. The interpretation of inputs in GUIs is a function of the on-screen state (besides the user devices' inputs). So the serialized nature of command-lines not only saves time, but significantly reduces the stress induced upon the programmer. 2) All operations that the programmer knows how to do "interactively" can easily be combined in a script for automation. Both points are arguably missing from IDEs. The only ad