The Command Line - Best Newbie Interface? 885
An anonymous reader writes "This essay describes the surprising results of a brief trial with a group of new computer users about the relative ease of the command line interface versus the GUIs now omnipresent in computer interfaces. It comes from practical experience I have of teaching computing to complete beginners or newbies as computer power-users often term them."
Ah the command line... (Score:5, Funny)
Master: "It's a command line. The instrument of a Unix Programmer. Not as random or clumsy as a GUI. An elegant interface for a more civilized age. Before the dark times. Before...Microsoft!"
Re:Brilliant (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Mac OS X (Score:1, Funny)
Re:Command line is your friend (Score:5, Funny)
These same so-called "experts" tend to have MCSE certificates proudly displayed on their cubical wall.
Re:The 'help' command (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Command line is your friend (Score:2, Funny)
Mouse-users will be less succesful in life because of RSI.
The female would find the male less attractive because it has less to offer.
In the end there will only be keyboard-users.
Re:The 'help' command (Score:5, Funny)
How about a little animated 'bash$' command prompt which jumps up when you hit F1, or which politely asks "It looks like you're composing a shell script. Would you like some help!" when you're in a bit of a pickle. You could type in a plain-English question about what you wanted to do, rather than having to remember the cryptic names of Unix commands. When you selected your specific query from a list of options that the animated character presented to you, it would then go on to show you exactly how to enter the command you were interested in. It would be great! You could even theme this 'assistant' according to your shell...it could appear as an animated 'ksh' or even just a '%' sign for those wanting to get on with the job.
As for a name, what about 'Bob'?
Full screen editors rock (Score:5, Funny)
Now that's newbie friendly.
Other Newbie Terms (Score:2, Funny)
-Noob -Ghost Recon/Console Gamers
-Newp -RPGers
-Nub -CSers
-Nubby -''
-Nubzy -''
-Pub -''
-Pubber -''
-CS -Gamer
Re:Command line is your friend (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Command line is your friend (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Well (Score:2, Funny)
How the hell do you have a dialogue with someone who won't talk with you?
Re:purely anecdotally (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Sure, for computers, for now (Score:1, Funny)
There is no "straightforward" real-world analogue for, say, a relational database program.
On top of that, there is a patronizing premise behind your post and the parent article: that non-geek computer users only want to do a couple of things.
Where I work, people are always complaining about slow boot times, because they've downloaded lots of crapware that they've installed into their systray.
As exasperating as it is, it shows pretty damn clearly that the "genericity of the machine" is something that users like. They may only use email, web and word processing today, but they might want to do something new tomorrow.
With a gui, so long as you can work through the absurd dream-logic behind the designer's choices, you can figure out new things for on your own, without reference to a manual. With a command line, you either know a command or you don't.
In closing: whenever your secretary brings down the entire network because she installed comet cursor, that's a big f. you to techie-knows-best assumptions about what users want.
Re:Sure, for computers, for now (Score:2, Funny)
Re:The 'help' command (Score:5, Funny)
This is a joke, right? (Score:2, Funny)
Re:The 'help' command (Score:5, Funny)
Re:The 'help' command (Score:5, Funny)
Re:purely anecdotally (Score:5, Funny)
We don't care that you don't want to know how your computer works. We like discussing interfaces and tech lawsuits. That's what we want to do, not type friggin letters or pay the bills over the internet. Different websites for different people. This is slashdot.
Re:The 'help' command (Score:4, Funny)
How about info? man interface is crap, but info is pretty user friendly. OK, I admit, I mostly browse info in emacs where it is all flashy and colourful, but AFAIR it is quite easy to navigate also in console. Although a small bar with basic navigation keys on the bottom would help a lot. Of course still quite often if you type 'info foobar' all you get is a man page but that's a different story.
Raf
Re:The 'help' command (Score:5, Funny)
As for a name, what about 'Bob'?
How about you make it an @ sign and call it CLIppy?
Re:purely anecdotally (Score:4, Funny)
Please change the oil in your car. And that rattling sound is your catalytic converter. The squeeking sound is your brakes. Just a heads up.
Re:The 'help' command (Score:2, Funny)
Yes.
Re:Mac OS X (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Like the VMS shell (Score:0, Funny)
Relax! It's a joke!
Re:The 'help' command (Score:5, Funny)
Ok the name was tongue-in-cheek. But maybe there is something the idea. I've been living in Unix for more than a dozen years and most of the time I like the "tell me about it iff there are problems" philosophy, but a centralized ticker might occasionally be handy. As a first cut one could basically write a layer that takes the stuff spewed forth by most utilities when -verbose is kicked in and peel it out to stdidiot. If -verbose is thrown on the cmd line, then stdidiot is echoed to stdout too.
Re:Microsoft demonized the command prompt... (Score:3, Funny)
Well, looks like he was right. Good call, dtowne!
Re:The 'help' command (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Command line is NOT your friend (Score:4, Funny)
That's a great error message. I think I'll create a whole class of "short bus errors" on the app I'm developing for work.
Re:Perfect Example - ImageMagick (Score:2, Funny)
Re:The 'help' command (Score:5, Funny)
Most of the trouble of Linux is the inertia related to not wanting to learn new things and not being technically difficult.
Yeah I know what you mean. When I was in high school I used to visit my grandmother in a nursing home all the time. She didn't know how to use Windows or E-Mail so I just gave her an old linux box. Like 2 months later she had root at NASA.
Re:The 'help' command (Score:3, Funny)
help: Command not found.
Something is wrong with your system.
mac:~/msn espectro$ help alias
alias: alias [-p] [name[=value]
`alias' with no arguments or with the -p option prints the list
of aliases in the form alias NAME=VALUE on standard output.
Otherwise, an alias is defined for each NAME whose VALUE is given.
A trailing space in VALUE causes the next word to be checked for
alias substitution when the alias is expanded. Alias returns
true unless a NAME is given for which no alias has been defined.
Are you claiming Java is a real language? (Score:3, Funny)
(lambda ()
(display "Learn a language that's capable of abstraction without boilerplate, dammit!")))
(set-him-straight)
Re:The 'help' command (Score:2, Funny)
It could be worse.