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Is getting rid of command line interfaces really a good idea?I don't think so,a lot of people work with and are fond of the CLI tool.

theendisney 2y ago
Depends entirely on what you replace it with. A fun thought, key bindings and task visualisations could mimic cli
al_borland 2y ago
If the CLI were to go away, the OS would still need to have rich APIs for automation. While it may not be something the average user ever uses or knows about, it’s vital for power users and the enterprise.
- jcelerier 2y ago
  And then you want these automation APIs to be accessible through a REPL for quick prototyping and...
- vmfunction 2y ago
  Either that or the OS need to provide an API to allow major languages to be able to interact with the system other than the GUI. sh can be an add on.
  - goodthenandnow 2y ago
    Not sure if this is what you meant, but I'd like to expand a little bit on it. - This API should be programming language agnostic (like, with a well defined ABI). Ideally an IPC based one, with a well defined wire format and protocols. - Not a singular API, but an “API system” with extensibility taken into account from the beginning (with things like versioning). It should be able to support arbitrary new API definitions so that other apps could consume, and also produce. - Such an API system should be used by the OS itself too, of course. So the OS would have the resulting benefits and the whole system would be more uniform.
owenpalmer 2y ago
Later in the post he elaborates on this. I think he's more opposed to the pure text aspect of it.
- vmfunction 2y ago
  >Command line interfaces don't fit modern application usage. We simply can't do everything with pure text. I'd like to pipe my Skype call to a video analysis service while I'm chatting, but I can't really run a video stream through awk or sed.
  - lm411 2y ago
    >Command line interfaces don't fit modern application usage. I guess you and I have different use cases and definition of "modern application usage". I assume you spend most of your day in a GUI, while I spend most of mine in a terminal. Pipes can handle binary data and sure you could pipe Skypes output through sed or awk... Though something like ffmpeg is more likely, and it will happily take stdin as input.
pizzafeelsright 2y ago
I am 99% in the CLI. I just want eyeball tracking for the mouse and voice to LLM to bash.

theendisney 2y ago

Depends entirely on what you replace it with. A fun thought, key bindings and task visualisations could mimic cli

al_borland 2y ago

If the CLI were to go away, the OS would still need to have rich APIs for automation. While it may not be something the average user ever uses or knows about, it’s vital for power users and the enterprise.

jcelerier 2y ago
And then you want these automation APIs to be accessible through a REPL for quick prototyping and...
vmfunction 2y ago
Either that or the OS need to provide an API to allow major languages to be able to interact with the system other than the GUI. sh can be an add on.
- goodthenandnow 2y ago
  Not sure if this is what you meant, but I'd like to expand a little bit on it. - This API should be programming language agnostic (like, with a well defined ABI). Ideally an IPC based one, with a well defined wire format and protocols. - Not a singular API, but an “API system” with extensibility taken into account from the beginning (with things like versioning). It should be able to support arbitrary new API definitions so that other apps could consume, and also produce. - Such an API system should be used by the OS itself too, of course. So the OS would have the resulting benefits and the whole system would be more uniform.

owenpalmer 2y ago

Later in the post he elaborates on this. I think he's more opposed to the pure text aspect of it.

vmfunction 2y ago
>Command line interfaces don't fit modern application usage. We simply can't do everything with pure text. I'd like to pipe my Skype call to a video analysis service while I'm chatting, but I can't really run a video stream through awk or sed.
- lm411 2y ago
  >Command line interfaces don't fit modern application usage. I guess you and I have different use cases and definition of "modern application usage". I assume you spend most of your day in a GUI, while I spend most of mine in a terminal. Pipes can handle binary data and sure you could pipe Skypes output through sed or awk... Though something like ffmpeg is more likely, and it will happily take stdin as input.

pizzafeelsright 2y ago

I am 99% in the CLI. I just want eyeball tracking for the mouse and voice to LLM to bash.