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> “Yeah, but really complicated things are going to require searching through manuals.” Maybe, but you already do that in the GUI, and very often you have to do
by lhnz 15y ago
> “Yeah, but really complicated things are going to require searching through manuals.” Maybe, but you already do that in the GUI, and very often you have to do that to accomplish some of the simpler tasks above.
I think this guy is just arguing for the sake of hits to his blog...
(1.) How many power users check a manual to do advanced tasks on a GUI? I bet most of you use 'intuition'.
(2.) How often does your mum check a manual ...ever. How long does she wish to spend to understand how to work it?
(3.) When you're explaining over the phone how she can get the program to work do you wish to be explaining a list of commands that need to be typed exactly and in order: almost like teaching your mum how to code? Do you...
- AlexandrB 15y ago> (3.) When you're explaining over the phone how she can get the program to work do you wish to be explaining a list of commands that need to be typed exactly and in order: almost like teaching your mum how to code? Do you... The only reason a GUI is better for verbal communication is because most users already have some familiarity with the idioms. Trying to explain what to click on when a user has never seen that control before can be very hard/frustrating. For written communication, CLI is much, much easier to deal with (you can just copy paste the command and expected output). Trying to convey GUI steps usually involves lots of screenshots and some work in Paint to highlight the important controls. I recently walked (via email) a friend who had never used a CLI before through restarting a server on a Linux box using the terminal. Doing the same with a GUI would have been a lot more painful on my end (so many screenshots) and that's assuming she is familiar enough with Linux's GUI idioms to not get confused by differences in basic controls.