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"You may think it a badge of honour that you can do “$ git rm –cached readme.txt” from memory." Well unless you are mentally disabled, remembering that command

"You may think it a badge of honour that you can do “$ git rm –cached readme.txt” from memory." Well unless you are mentally disabled, remembering that command (and a couple of thousand others) is trivial. The title is complete nonsense. He never actually backs up the statement that he hates computers, he just rants about his love for his wheelchair (GUI).

wladimir 15y ago
I think he misunderstands the command line. If you have tasks you need to do a lot, such as compilation, committing a change, and so on, it's easier to use a GUI or key shortcut. There is no "badge" in typing "git commit" or "make" as you know them by heart soon enough. But for specific manipulation of the version control system, or specific queries, a command line is much more expressive. For a lot of functionality there isn't even a (good) GUI because the use case doesn't come up enough for someone to build it, or you're doing something no one has thought of before. Sometimes you need to take the path less traveled :-)
crazygringo 15y ago
"remembering that command (and a couple of thousand others) is trivial" I couldn't disagree more -- one of the reasons I'm a programmer, I think, is because I'm good with concepts and bad at memory (History was my worst class). And programming, for me, is all about organizing structures. For function calls, autocomplete and tooltips that remind me of the argument order are lifesavers for me. On the command line, I simply can't consistently remember which commands take which flags, and which parameters, in which order... Command-line is fantastic for connecting together different processes, creating macros and scripts, etc. But not for day-to-day use. There, I agree with the article's author, command-line use is pure masochism. A checkbox (well-labelled) takes a second to interact with. Hunting in the man pages for a command-line option? Usually around a minute. I want to spend my brain power and time on programming, not on my tools.
- BasDirks 15y ago
  I'm not perfect either, I like my autocomplete and history controls as well. Hackers save time and take shortcuts, and for me that means using the command-line. I want to access the options of a program that are not found in your menus ;)
alecperkins 15y ago
Well unless you are mentally disabled, remembering that command (and a couple of thousand others) is trivial. It's hardly trivial. People think and remember in different ways, even those who aren't mentally challenged. Personally, I always feel like I'm speaking a foreign language when using the terminal, even though I've been using it nearly every day for several years now. However, my spatial memory is much stronger. I generally feel familiar with a new GUI pretty quickly, since I can map functionality to locations. Plus there's the visual aspect of any icons. Shortcut keys are immensely useful once you build strong muscle memory of them, but frustrating if that's your only option. Certain programs, such as Rhino3D, give you full GUI, top menus, and a command line, (and scripting in multiple languages,) and being able to pick the way that works fastest for me for any given operation and my overall workflow is awesome. Also, being able to just see what possible options are is important. I find it kind of cruel that modern terminals don't have a good way to do this (yeah there's tab, but it's not auto). Shells that have even a basic auto-suggest are almost delightful to use, by comparison (eg Rhino's).

wladimir 15y ago

I think he misunderstands the command line. If you have tasks you need to do a lot, such as compilation, committing a change, and so on, it's easier to use a GUI or key shortcut. There is no "badge" in typing "git commit" or "make" as you know them by heart soon enough. But for specific manipulation of the version control system, or specific queries, a command line is much more expressive. For a lot of functionality there isn't even a (good) GUI because the use case doesn't come up enough for someone to build it, or you're doing something no one has thought of before. Sometimes you need to take the path less traveled :-)

crazygringo 15y ago

"remembering that command (and a couple of thousand others) is trivial" I couldn't disagree more -- one of the reasons I'm a programmer, I think, is because I'm good with concepts and bad at memory (History was my worst class). And programming, for me, is all about organizing structures. For function calls, autocomplete and tooltips that remind me of the argument order are lifesavers for me. On the command line, I simply can't consistently remember which commands take which flags, and which parameters, in which order... Command-line is fantastic for connecting together different processes, creating macros and scripts, etc. But not for day-to-day use. There, I agree with the article's author, command-line use is pure masochism. A checkbox (well-labelled) takes a second to interact with. Hunting in the man pages for a command-line option? Usually around a minute. I want to spend my brain power and time on programming, not on my tools.

BasDirks 15y ago
I'm not perfect either, I like my autocomplete and history controls as well. Hackers save time and take shortcuts, and for me that means using the command-line. I want to access the options of a program that are not found in your menus ;)

alecperkins 15y ago

Well unless you are mentally disabled, remembering that command (and a couple of thousand others) is trivial. It's hardly trivial. People think and remember in different ways, even those who aren't mentally challenged. Personally, I always feel like I'm speaking a foreign language when using the terminal, even though I've been using it nearly every day for several years now. However, my spatial memory is much stronger. I generally feel familiar with a new GUI pretty quickly, since I can map functionality to locations. Plus there's the visual aspect of any icons. Shortcut keys are immensely useful once you build strong muscle memory of them, but frustrating if that's your only option. Certain programs, such as Rhino3D, give you full GUI, top menus, and a command line, (and scripting in multiple languages,) and being able to pick the way that works fastest for me for any given operation and my overall workflow is awesome. Also, being able to just see what possible options are is important. I find it kind of cruel that modern terminals don't have a good way to do this (yeah there's tab, but it's not auto). Shells that have even a basic auto-suggest are almost delightful to use, by comparison (eg Rhino's).