4 ms·

It's handy for people who are not comfortable with the command line, no matter how simple it is. In addition it allows one to convert to mp3 etc. The number of

by Nux 5y ago

It's handy for people who are not comfortable with the command line, no matter how simple it is. In addition it allows one to convert to mp3 etc. The number of people who might want to download something from Youtube & co is significantly larger than that of people comfortable with the cli.

schoen 5y ago
I won't criticize someone for making more interfaces for this software, but I like the prospect that more people have been and will be motivated to learn about command line interfaces in order to use powerful software like youtube-dl.
- beckman466 5y ago
  > I won't criticize > but please stop gatekeeping > motivated to learn about command line interfaces in order to use powerful software many people never get basic tech literacy. i think we’d benefit from not simply assuming others have (or could have) access to the same resources, time and patience that we had. i think you probably mean well but your statement, which sort of implies that people say “I am choosing not to learn the important skill of using the command line!”, just comes across as ignorant and naive to me
  - suction 5y ago
    Tech literacy would help a great deal saving our democracies. Nobody needs to know command line, but to be able to tell if you're on a Russian disinfo website or a legit source of information is also (but not only) a matter of tech literacy, so I think OP is on to something here.
    - filmgirlcw 5y ago
      Tech literacy isn’t using a CLI. Get over yourself.
      - wizzwizz4 5y ago
        > Nobody needs to know command line You're replying to a tangential “continuing the conversation”-type comment as though it were a rebuttal in an argument. It already agrees with you.
      - Nicksil 5y ago
        >Tech literacy isn’t using a CLI. Get over yourself. Unnecessarily hostile. We need less of this.
      - msla 5y ago
        Hint: Being a jerk to people online using a random account makes you look like an asshole.
        filmgirlcw 5y ago
        Wasn’t a random account. When I’m an asshole, it’s under my own name, thanks.
- WesolyKubeczek 5y ago
  I love the command line just as much as the next guy, but I could appreciate a gui program onto which I would drag and drop links from the url bar as i’m watching a video, and where there would be zones like “save as video”, “save and convert to mp3”, etc. And it would also take care of queueing things up. I couldn’t care less how those zones are defined and configured, could be a configuration file for all i care, but the end result would be much more potent than copying and pasting into terminal and then making sure it’s quoted or escaped properly.
- rat9988 5y ago
  Most people have no idea about how to use command line and it's fine.
- filmgirlcw 5y ago
  OK, but if someone needs something like this for work (believe it or not, this stuff is faster than the official YouTube tools for downloading videos), expecting them to learn the CLI, install the libraries, figure out the settings, is a lot to expect. Especially if a Frontend exists. And on Mac, installing it isn’t a big deal (tho for CLI averse people it is) but it is more complicated in Windows (especially for people who don’t use a shell everyday). I’m a huge fan of good CLIs. I’m also a huge fan of GUIs. Why require people to learn something just to use a video downloader?
- marcellus23 5y ago
  GUIs were invented for a reason. They allow an intuitive and spatial understanding of software, and while they create limitations in some areas, they remove limitations in others. For example, I think the benefits are obvious of offering a native save dialog for where to download the video, rather than requiring the user to specify a hand-typed or copy-pasted path. Even for people who know how to use the command line, most of us still spend the day in a graphical desktop environment, and having a program that integrates with that environment is very valuable.

by Nux 5y ago

schoen 5y ago

I won't criticize someone for making more interfaces for this software, but I like the prospect that more people have been and will be motivated to learn about command line interfaces in order to use powerful software like youtube-dl.

beckman466 5y ago
> I won't criticize > but please stop gatekeeping > motivated to learn about command line interfaces in order to use powerful software many people never get basic tech literacy. i think we’d benefit from not simply assuming others have (or could have) access to the same resources, time and patience that we had. i think you probably mean well but your statement, which sort of implies that people say “I am choosing not to learn the important skill of using the command line!”, just comes across as ignorant and naive to me
- suction 5y ago
  Tech literacy would help a great deal saving our democracies. Nobody needs to know command line, but to be able to tell if you're on a Russian disinfo website or a legit source of information is also (but not only) a matter of tech literacy, so I think OP is on to something here.
  - filmgirlcw 5y ago
    Tech literacy isn’t using a CLI. Get over yourself.
    - wizzwizz4 5y ago
      > Nobody needs to know command line You're replying to a tangential “continuing the conversation”-type comment as though it were a rebuttal in an argument. It already agrees with you.
    - Nicksil 5y ago
      >Tech literacy isn’t using a CLI. Get over yourself. Unnecessarily hostile. We need less of this.
    - msla 5y ago
      Hint: Being a jerk to people online using a random account makes you look like an asshole.
      - filmgirlcw 5y ago
        Wasn’t a random account. When I’m an asshole, it’s under my own name, thanks.
WesolyKubeczek 5y ago
I love the command line just as much as the next guy, but I could appreciate a gui program onto which I would drag and drop links from the url bar as i’m watching a video, and where there would be zones like “save as video”, “save and convert to mp3”, etc. And it would also take care of queueing things up. I couldn’t care less how those zones are defined and configured, could be a configuration file for all i care, but the end result would be much more potent than copying and pasting into terminal and then making sure it’s quoted or escaped properly.
rat9988 5y ago
Most people have no idea about how to use command line and it's fine.
filmgirlcw 5y ago
OK, but if someone needs something like this for work (believe it or not, this stuff is faster than the official YouTube tools for downloading videos), expecting them to learn the CLI, install the libraries, figure out the settings, is a lot to expect. Especially if a Frontend exists. And on Mac, installing it isn’t a big deal (tho for CLI averse people it is) but it is more complicated in Windows (especially for people who don’t use a shell everyday). I’m a huge fan of good CLIs. I’m also a huge fan of GUIs. Why require people to learn something just to use a video downloader?
marcellus23 5y ago
GUIs were invented for a reason. They allow an intuitive and spatial understanding of software, and while they create limitations in some areas, they remove limitations in others. For example, I think the benefits are obvious of offering a native save dialog for where to download the video, rather than requiring the user to specify a hand-typed or copy-pasted path. Even for people who know how to use the command line, most of us still spend the day in a graphical desktop environment, and having a program that integrates with that environment is very valuable.