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I’d argue that if you’re using an ncurses based UI, you no longer have a command line interface, and you’re not scriptable anymore. Which is fine of course, but

I’d argue that if you’re using an ncurses based UI, you no longer have a command line interface, and you’re not scriptable anymore. Which is fine of course, but what you really have at that point is a rather ugly and limited GUI...

aeldidi 6y ago
I agree. Although for most tasks I tend to prefer having a command line interface, just because of things like programmability and my typing speed, I'd be lying to go as far as to say the CLI is _always_ the best way to do something. For example, I like to construct git commits using a GUI, since I'm faster at selecting lines to commit than I am sifting through potentially hundreds of changes looking for the right one to add to a particular commit. Additionally, I think some of the listed tasks are objectively better in the GUI, despite being possibly slower. For example, in the command line, deleting a file doesn't send it to the "Recycle Bin" or your OS's equivalent, it simply deletes it. This is better for things like scripts, but worse for someone using it as a GUI replacement, since now there's a risk that they could permanently delete an important file due to misspelling or something of the sort. I find it hard to remember sometimes that Emacs is a GUI too, and it can often be the best way to do any given task.
- pgcj_poster 6y ago
  > For example, in the command line, deleting a file doesn't send it to the "Recycle Bin" or your OS's equivalent, it simply deletes it. Use trash-cli: https://github.com/andreafrancia/trash-cli https://github.com/andreafrancia/trash-cli
gpanders 6y ago
Something like Vim still benefits from the composability of the command line interface. I can write and read buffers to/from other processes, asynchronously run commands and pipe the output into Vim, and of course I can always put Vim in the background at any time which immediately drops me into my shell, where I have complete and full access to the entirety of the machine. These are the main reasons I stick with terminal based editors over something like VS Code with Vim bindings. Using a separate GUI breaks that deep integration with the shell, which for me just creates too much friction for not enough benefit.
HKH2 6y ago
and yet way faster! If you're okay with waiting 5-10 seconds for your editor to load, fine.
BeetleB 6y ago
Depends on the UI. Midnight commander, for example, has the command line in it, so you don't lose it. But even without the command line embedded, I'm sure I could do common file operations much faster in it than 90% of command line lovers. Good curses based GUIs can be quite efficient. Usually won't beat the command line, but can get close, and are much easier to learn.
asdff 6y ago
On the other hand, my laptop will probably last days without refueling running some TUI in my terminal vs modern GUI software

aeldidi 6y ago

I agree. Although for most tasks I tend to prefer having a command line interface, just because of things like programmability and my typing speed, I'd be lying to go as far as to say the CLI is _always_ the best way to do something. For example, I like to construct git commits using a GUI, since I'm faster at selecting lines to commit than I am sifting through potentially hundreds of changes looking for the right one to add to a particular commit. Additionally, I think some of the listed tasks are objectively better in the GUI, despite being possibly slower. For example, in the command line, deleting a file doesn't send it to the "Recycle Bin" or your OS's equivalent, it simply deletes it. This is better for things like scripts, but worse for someone using it as a GUI replacement, since now there's a risk that they could permanently delete an important file due to misspelling or something of the sort. I find it hard to remember sometimes that Emacs is a GUI too, and it can often be the best way to do any given task.

pgcj_poster 6y ago
> For example, in the command line, deleting a file doesn't send it to the "Recycle Bin" or your OS's equivalent, it simply deletes it. Use trash-cli: https://github.com/andreafrancia/trash-cli https://github.com/andreafrancia/trash-cli

gpanders 6y ago

Something like Vim still benefits from the composability of the command line interface. I can write and read buffers to/from other processes, asynchronously run commands and pipe the output into Vim, and of course I can always put Vim in the background at any time which immediately drops me into my shell, where I have complete and full access to the entirety of the machine. These are the main reasons I stick with terminal based editors over something like VS Code with Vim bindings. Using a separate GUI breaks that deep integration with the shell, which for me just creates too much friction for not enough benefit.

HKH2 6y ago

and yet way faster! If you're okay with waiting 5-10 seconds for your editor to load, fine.

BeetleB 6y ago

Depends on the UI. Midnight commander, for example, has the command line in it, so you don't lose it. But even without the command line embedded, I'm sure I could do common file operations much faster in it than 90% of command line lovers. Good curses based GUIs can be quite efficient. Usually won't beat the command line, but can get close, and are much easier to learn.

asdff 6y ago

On the other hand, my laptop will probably last days without refueling running some TUI in my terminal vs modern GUI software