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I found this piece very interesting. The main advantage of the CLI seems to be the fact that it only shows the user information relevant to what is currently g

I found this piece very interesting. The main advantage of the CLI seems to be the fact that it only shows the user information relevant to what is currently going on. This makes it far less intimidating to new users than a multi-process windowing operating system where the screen can have hundreds of buttons on it at one time. I myself have experienced this problem when teaching new users: people who haven't grokked the basic logic of GUIs find it extraordinarily difficult to infer what to do next in a particular situation. And all of us who design GUIs have grokked this, so we can't help the people who haven't.

tarkin2 17y ago
"[I]t only shows the user information relevant to what is currently going on." I agree this makes it better for newbies. It also makes me wonder about all those who actually like GUIs, like having multiple things going on at once. It's like they're embrasising their ADHD side, and the GUI rewards that, rewards those who are constatly flicking from one thing to another. Those people may, consequently, find singular concentration harder. Whether that's absolutely good or bad, I'm undecided.
- loup-vaillant 17y ago
  For me, right now, this is pretty bad. I do switch tasks: my IDE (real work), my email client (not real work), and HN (not work at all). Another pernicious effect of GUI, for me is the mess I do of my file hierarchy when I have it. Even I knew the command line.
stonemetal 17y ago
>> The main advantage of the CLI seems to be the fact that it only shows the user information relevant to what is currently going on. Really? When I open bash it doesn't show me anything. When I am trying to muddle through a grep it gives me 0 feedback. Unlike say Regex buddy that gives quite a bit of feedback. GUIs may have the problem of overwhelming the new user with too much feedback but the CLI suffers from too little feedback. It is much easier to simplify the GUI than it is to beef up the command line.
- silentbicycle 17y ago
  Many CLI programs are written to be used by other CLI programs, which is considerably more difficult when the the primary interface to the program is a GUI. If you keep the interface simple and textual, though, you can still write a GUI wrapper.
  - stonemetal 17y ago
    Too true, RegEx Buddy certainly helps me with regex's but it doesn't help me get them into any other app where I actually use regexs. To me GUIs are REPL while CLI is compile and wait. CLI is much faster(especially if you know what you are doing) at the end of the day but when I don't have a clue as to what I am doing(most of the time) large buttons that say try this and try that allow for experimentation with immediate feedback,with the caveat that it doesn't lend itself to integration.
    - silentbicycle 17y ago
      First off, a REPL IS a CLI. I think that we're talking past each other - I'm talking about expressiveness (once you know the system, you can easily ask the right questions and get rapid, informative feedback), while you're talking about discoverable interfaces (if you've never used it before, can you figure it out?). There's a certain point past which having a discoverable interface is overrated. Complaining about a system advanced as (say) AutoCAD not being intuitive is a bit silly, IMHO.
      - stonemetal 17y ago
        >>First off, a REPL IS a CLI. drscheme, allegro lisp,squeak,dolphin smalltalk,idle. Most of the REPLs I use aren't CLI and are the better for it. I certainly don't see this as a discoverable vs expressive debate. It is expressive(the app) vs expressive(the user) debate. A GUI allows the App to be more expressive. CLI has only one way of expressing anything to the user, slabs of text.
- gloob 17y ago

tarkin2 17y ago

"[I]t only shows the user information relevant to what is currently going on." I agree this makes it better for newbies. It also makes me wonder about all those who actually like GUIs, like having multiple things going on at once. It's like they're embrasising their ADHD side, and the GUI rewards that, rewards those who are constatly flicking from one thing to another. Those people may, consequently, find singular concentration harder. Whether that's absolutely good or bad, I'm undecided.

loup-vaillant 17y ago
For me, right now, this is pretty bad. I do switch tasks: my IDE (real work), my email client (not real work), and HN (not work at all). Another pernicious effect of GUI, for me is the mess I do of my file hierarchy when I have it. Even I knew the command line.

stonemetal 17y ago

>> The main advantage of the CLI seems to be the fact that it only shows the user information relevant to what is currently going on. Really? When I open bash it doesn't show me anything. When I am trying to muddle through a grep it gives me 0 feedback. Unlike say Regex buddy that gives quite a bit of feedback. GUIs may have the problem of overwhelming the new user with too much feedback but the CLI suffers from too little feedback. It is much easier to simplify the GUI than it is to beef up the command line.

silentbicycle 17y ago
Many CLI programs are written to be used by other CLI programs, which is considerably more difficult when the the primary interface to the program is a GUI. If you keep the interface simple and textual, though, you can still write a GUI wrapper.
- stonemetal 17y ago
  Too true, RegEx Buddy certainly helps me with regex's but it doesn't help me get them into any other app where I actually use regexs. To me GUIs are REPL while CLI is compile and wait. CLI is much faster(especially if you know what you are doing) at the end of the day but when I don't have a clue as to what I am doing(most of the time) large buttons that say try this and try that allow for experimentation with immediate feedback,with the caveat that it doesn't lend itself to integration.
  - silentbicycle 17y ago
    First off, a REPL IS a CLI. I think that we're talking past each other - I'm talking about expressiveness (once you know the system, you can easily ask the right questions and get rapid, informative feedback), while you're talking about discoverable interfaces (if you've never used it before, can you figure it out?). There's a certain point past which having a discoverable interface is overrated. Complaining about a system advanced as (say) AutoCAD not being intuitive is a bit silly, IMHO.
    - stonemetal 17y ago
      >>First off, a REPL IS a CLI. drscheme, allegro lisp,squeak,dolphin smalltalk,idle. Most of the REPLs I use aren't CLI and are the better for it. I certainly don't see this as a discoverable vs expressive debate. It is expressive(the app) vs expressive(the user) debate. A GUI allows the App to be more expressive. CLI has only one way of expressing anything to the user, slabs of text.
gloob 17y ago