[thelist] Developing in Linux

[Ken Schaefer]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: thelist-bounces at lists.evolt.org [mailto:thelist-
> bounces at lists.evolt.org] On Behalf Of Hassan Schroeder
> Subject: Re: [thelist] Developing in Linux
>
> On Mon, May 12, 2008 at 7:34 PM, Ken Schaefer <Ken at adopenstatic.com>
> wrote:
> > Ah, the elitist command line snobs :-)
>
> ? Appreciating the value of a CLI is "elitist"?

No - it's people who bang on about how good CLIs are. And how much better they are than GUI tools.

It's very akin to the same pathetic debates we have about OSes and other unresolvable topics

Use what is best for the job - it's a tool, not a religion.

> > Command lines tools are good for repetitive tasks, or things that can
> > be highly automated.
> >
> > They are not necessarily so efficient for one-off, quick tasks
>
> In my experience, just the opposite. It's the "one-off" situations
> where there's likely no purpose-built GUI tool available to do the job.

Rubbish.

If you want to process 15k files (your example) that's a highly repetitive task that can be automated.

If you want to change your desktop wallpaper, or copy a single file, or launch a program, or view a webpage, or any number of one-off tasks, then usually a GUI is quicker. And if the GUI doesn't expose an option to allow you to perform common tasks, then that's arguably a failure in UI design.

A UI tool generally can't expose every possible option for controlling a non-trivial app. But it should expose those things that are the most commonly needed, and have the most directed workflows. Custom manipulation of text files - not a good UI candidate. Selecting a new background wallpaper for your desktop - a good candidate.


> > And lastly, Windows has something called "Powershell" now
>
> Yeah, I know. Better late than never, I guess. And believe me, that's
> by far the nicest thing I can say about it, but I'll hold that rant
> :-)

Blah, blah, blah. Seems you have an ideological chip on your shoulder if you can find nothing but bad about a product except for the fact that it's out. I'll stick to getting my facts from Wikipedia or something. They're a little more balanced.

Cheers
Ken