[thelist] Developing in Linux

Hassan Schroeder hassan.schroeder at gmail.com
Fri May 16 09:42:00 CDT 2008


/* oops, overlooked this at the time it was posted */

On Tue, May 13, 2008 at 6:57 PM, Ken Schaefer <Ken at adopenstatic.com> wrote:

>> ? 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.

mmm. I don't personally know anyone who claims CLIs are "better"
than GUI tools -- they're different, and sometimes better-suited to a
given problem.

Still don't know how that fits the definition of "elitist", but...

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

Exactly. And when there /is no GUI tool for a job/, you can frequently
accomplish the task via the command line. That's /if/ you have a good
shell available.

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

What do you mean by "automated"? For a unique requirement, you
have to write code; why would I create a GUI tool for a one-time use
when I can string half-a-dozen POSIX utilities together from the CLI
and be done? I really don't see where you're going here.

>> > 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.

OK, since you asked so nicely :-)

"Not Invented Here" just makes me crazy. If you want to call that
"ideological" -- OK, I'm good with that.

Many people using Windows desktops also use *nix servers, and
hence have to interact with *nix shells. MS could have easily, long
ago, added a fully POSIX-compliant shell to Windows, providing a
powerful shell environment for people who wanted it, without taking
/anything/ away from those using the GUI exclusively.

Skills learned using that shell/environment  would be transferable
between platforms -- a "win/win" in most peoples' book.

Instead, we now have a "shell" totally proprietary to MS, with a, um,
"unique" syntax, that -- AFAICT from looking at the docs -- has very
limited capabilities compared to any of the *nix shells. Not much of
an ROI on learning that unless you're strictly using MS platforms.

Hope that clarifies, and I'm so happy to have made it through that
using the phrase "unique syntax" instead of  "gawd-awful butt-ugly" --
oh, rats. There I went. My bad. I'll get the steering checked soonest.
Honest.

IMO, YMMV, etc.
-- 
Hassan Schroeder ------------------------ hassan.schroeder at gmail.com



More information about the thelist mailing list