Ok, let me try again: the principle has nothing to do with user friendliness,learning curve or complexity of the UI. Let's look at awk as an example,the langu

Ok, let me try again: the principle has nothing to do with user friendliness,learning curve or complexity of the UI. Let's look at awk as an example,the language itself is not the UI, the means by which you interact with it is: awk 'BEGIN{FS="\n"}{print $1}' somefile How the quotes, braces,value assignment,input file specification,etc... Works is the "UI" ,what the terms BEGIN,FS,print,$1 mean and do is the functions of the language. FL=somefile awk =BEGIN+FS=~\n~++print $1+= If that was insteas the "UI" for the awk language, the functionality and power of the language remains unaffectes. But there is plenty to explain to your audience there and it has nothing to do with the functionality or capability of the language. Even the most complicated aircraft has a seat,an obvious entrance and buttons as an interface to the pilot. It's fine for the functions of the buttons or how to be secured in a seat to require explanation,it's bad UI to have a bed,or a seat that pops up from a hidden location or buttons that look identical to indicator lights.