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In my experience, it is easier to automate a workflow using command line applications. The GUI versions of tools have to try and predict every possible workflow

In my experience, it is easier to automate a workflow using command line applications. The GUI versions of tools have to try and predict every possible workflow, while terminal applications can be easily combined in scripts. That being said, there are definitely major productivity features to be had with GUIs, such as those with web browsers and IDEs.

shay_ker 7y ago
what's an example of a workflow you've automated on a terminal?
- inetknght 7y ago
  -> download 1000 files using curl, then validate their checksum, then build stuff -> take an almost-CSV report generated by one piece of software, remove a bunch of extra garbage at the top to turn it into an actual CSV file, then send the CSV file to data analysis pipeline. -> join two CSV files selecting columns 2,3 from one file and 4,5 from the other file, keyed on column 1 from both files. like excel but for CSV files sized in hundreds of megabytes -> take a bunch of CSV files and pump them into a rabbitmq queue -> query whether a queue is empty. if so, start a new analysis job. if not, sleep another hour -> grep for data in a directory to find specific files containing that data, then point those paths to another service I can go on all day. CLI tools are far more wieldy than GUI tools IMO. CLI tools give me a generally-stable interface (or at the very least, a straightforward method of parsing and adapting to changes) and usually have _way_ better documentation than GUIs.
  - shay_ker 7y ago
    Many of these actions seem like something you'd just never do in GUI though? Except maybe some of the CSV stuff.
    - m_mueller 7y ago
      See, there is a reason don't do this in a GUI. For a short while it looked like Apple's Automator would get there. Maybe Microsoft can crack this in a couple of years if they go nuts with python as a GUI scripting language with native OLE support.
      - jankiehodgpodge 7y ago
        Powershell is already there.
    - inetknght 7y ago
      All of these actions are things which can be done in a GUI, just definitely not at the scale mentioned... certainly not at the scale mentioned and in a time-efficient manner
      - shay_ker 7y ago
        Right exactly, they'd just be unreasonable to do in a GUI. But what about Google Docs? Admin tasks? Emails? Slack? Code review? Calendar meetings?
- ponyous 7y ago
  I work with React Native: 1st I setup a script to start an emulator (iOS and Android), build and deploy an app to emus, start development JS server, open vim and split the window to have a terminal ready for anything else. 2nd I automated asset creation when I receive SVG from design - it automatically generates 3 different asset sizes (as required by iOS), compresses them, moves them and names them correctly. That's just the beginning...
- dredmorbius 7y ago
  Virtually anything you need (or want) to do more than a small handful of times. Key elements of a decent shell tool are varables, pipes, loops, logic, and parameters. This ranges from the bog-simple (an xmessage "tea timer" that pops up a reminder after a few minutes to tell me my tea is steeped), to complex scripts. Things I've run from a shell include downloading and analysing 50,000 G+ profiles for most recent activity, literally a "bash on-liner", as described here: https://ello.co/dredmorbius/post/naya9wqdemiovuvwvoyquq https://ello.co/dredmorbius/post/naya9wqdemiovuvwvoyquq Resizing or modifying images via Imagemagick (scales to however much time and disk space you have), converting files from one format to another, generating lists of stuff for further analysis or conversion, updating a whole slew of documents in one fell swoop, creating and listening to playlists of local or remote content with mpv. You've got a ton of small, simple tools which can be combined flexibly in virtually any way you want. That's a lot of power.
gbear605 7y ago
But this application loses all those benefits, since it's just a GUI that happens to be displayed in ASCII on a terminal.
- sachdevap 7y ago
  I would imagine if someone sat down to create a dashboard for the browser, it would take as much if not more work, and building interaction with each element would be a whole new thing altogether. I think the purpose of a dashboard is not to give you detailed interactions, but to let you know the status and you can take actions outside the dashboard as you like. Moreover, not so sure about this application but you can always have key shortcuts to take you to run a default task for one of the sections of the dashboard. Hence, imo, there is no real loss of functionality here.

shay_ker 7y ago

what's an example of a workflow you've automated on a terminal?

inetknght 7y ago
-> download 1000 files using curl, then validate their checksum, then build stuff -> take an almost-CSV report generated by one piece of software, remove a bunch of extra garbage at the top to turn it into an actual CSV file, then send the CSV file to data analysis pipeline. -> join two CSV files selecting columns 2,3 from one file and 4,5 from the other file, keyed on column 1 from both files. like excel but for CSV files sized in hundreds of megabytes -> take a bunch of CSV files and pump them into a rabbitmq queue -> query whether a queue is empty. if so, start a new analysis job. if not, sleep another hour -> grep for data in a directory to find specific files containing that data, then point those paths to another service I can go on all day. CLI tools are far more wieldy than GUI tools IMO. CLI tools give me a generally-stable interface (or at the very least, a straightforward method of parsing and adapting to changes) and usually have _way_ better documentation than GUIs.
- shay_ker 7y ago
  Many of these actions seem like something you'd just never do in GUI though? Except maybe some of the CSV stuff.
  - m_mueller 7y ago
    See, there is a reason don't do this in a GUI. For a short while it looked like Apple's Automator would get there. Maybe Microsoft can crack this in a couple of years if they go nuts with python as a GUI scripting language with native OLE support.
    - jankiehodgpodge 7y ago
      Powershell is already there.
  - inetknght 7y ago
    All of these actions are things which can be done in a GUI, just definitely not at the scale mentioned... certainly not at the scale mentioned and in a time-efficient manner
    - shay_ker 7y ago
      Right exactly, they'd just be unreasonable to do in a GUI. But what about Google Docs? Admin tasks? Emails? Slack? Code review? Calendar meetings?
ponyous 7y ago
I work with React Native: 1st I setup a script to start an emulator (iOS and Android), build and deploy an app to emus, start development JS server, open vim and split the window to have a terminal ready for anything else. 2nd I automated asset creation when I receive SVG from design - it automatically generates 3 different asset sizes (as required by iOS), compresses them, moves them and names them correctly. That's just the beginning...
dredmorbius 7y ago
Virtually anything you need (or want) to do more than a small handful of times. Key elements of a decent shell tool are varables, pipes, loops, logic, and parameters. This ranges from the bog-simple (an xmessage "tea timer" that pops up a reminder after a few minutes to tell me my tea is steeped), to complex scripts. Things I've run from a shell include downloading and analysing 50,000 G+ profiles for most recent activity, literally a "bash on-liner", as described here: https://ello.co/dredmorbius/post/naya9wqdemiovuvwvoyquq https://ello.co/dredmorbius/post/naya9wqdemiovuvwvoyquq Resizing or modifying images via Imagemagick (scales to however much time and disk space you have), converting files from one format to another, generating lists of stuff for further analysis or conversion, updating a whole slew of documents in one fell swoop, creating and listening to playlists of local or remote content with mpv. You've got a ton of small, simple tools which can be combined flexibly in virtually any way you want. That's a lot of power.

gbear605 7y ago

But this application loses all those benefits, since it's just a GUI that happens to be displayed in ASCII on a terminal.

sachdevap 7y ago
I would imagine if someone sat down to create a dashboard for the browser, it would take as much if not more work, and building interaction with each element would be a whole new thing altogether. I think the purpose of a dashboard is not to give you detailed interactions, but to let you know the status and you can take actions outside the dashboard as you like. Moreover, not so sure about this application but you can always have key shortcuts to take you to run a default task for one of the sections of the dashboard. Hence, imo, there is no real loss of functionality here.