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I like this because it's trying to be more than a classic terminal. And I hate it for the same reason, it repeats everything a classic terminal has, including t

by slver 5y ago

I like this because it's trying to be more than a classic terminal. And I hate it for the same reason, it repeats everything a classic terminal has, including the awkward syntax like a line that begins with ">" and parameters that are preceded by "--". Sure, it's second nature to us, but habit is a terrible way to tell what's right and what isn't. We need to go back to first principles.

Siira 5y ago
These are not features of the terminal at all. “>” is a customizable prompt of your shell, and “-“ is a convention used by most (but not all) binaries. It’s also a very useful convention; How else are you going to tell arguments apart from options?
- slver 5y ago
  You'd think the very purpose of calling it a "Graphical Command Line" would be that you're not restricted to a literal line of text. Just because it should be convenient to type and navigate with a keyboard doesn't mean the command line can't have structure beyond just the characters on it. I can fill in a webform just the keyboard. Tab, type, tab, type, tab, type, tab to the submit button, hit enter. Done. So I didn't have to type "--" anywhere. I didn't have to type the field names at all actually. Not saying I want them fixed per se, but "telling them apart" shouldn't be a real question in a graphical terminal UI. Likewise we should never escape strings or quote strings in a Graphical Terminal IMHO. They should just be text fields integrated seamlessly into the line, with visible boundaries. If you copy the line and paste it in a text editor, then sure, maybe show all this ghastly encoding happening underneath. But in the GUI Terminal... nah I don't accept it. EDIT: While we're at it, I don't think we should use monospace fonts in a GUI terminal. Certainly a font with distinct letters like lI1 and 0O, but not monospaced.

by slver 5y ago

Siira 5y ago

These are not features of the terminal at all. “>” is a customizable prompt of your shell, and “-“ is a convention used by most (but not all) binaries. It’s also a very useful convention; How else are you going to tell arguments apart from options?

slver 5y ago
You'd think the very purpose of calling it a "Graphical Command Line" would be that you're not restricted to a literal line of text. Just because it should be convenient to type and navigate with a keyboard doesn't mean the command line can't have structure beyond just the characters on it. I can fill in a webform just the keyboard. Tab, type, tab, type, tab, type, tab to the submit button, hit enter. Done. So I didn't have to type "--" anywhere. I didn't have to type the field names at all actually. Not saying I want them fixed per se, but "telling them apart" shouldn't be a real question in a graphical terminal UI. Likewise we should never escape strings or quote strings in a Graphical Terminal IMHO. They should just be text fields integrated seamlessly into the line, with visible boundaries. If you copy the line and paste it in a text editor, then sure, maybe show all this ghastly encoding happening underneath. But in the GUI Terminal... nah I don't accept it. EDIT: While we're at it, I don't think we should use monospace fonts in a GUI terminal. Certainly a font with distinct letters like lI1 and 0O, but not monospaced.