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The Command Line - Best Newbie Interface?
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."
Apprentice: "What is that, Master?"
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!"
"Backups are for wimps. Real men upload their data to an FTP site and have everyone else mirror it." -- Linus Torvalds
If only there was a -1: Author's Girlfriend moderation option...
Rich
I like the way you chose to back up your statement with solid, and clear evidence.
I find it amazing how many computer "experts" are dead in the water when the mouse doesn't work or the GUI doesn't come up as expected.
These same so-called "experts" tend to have MCSE certificates proudly displayed on their cubical wall.
I'd rather be a conservative nutjob than a liberal with no nuts and no job.
Why not come up with a command line wizard that displays a command, gives you information about its function and prompts you for the most personally intuitive replacement designation for that command.This is even more important for non-english speakers.
Nature has it's natural selection...
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.
If you mod this up, your slashdot background will turn into a beautiful sunset!
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'?
Now that's newbie friendly.
READY.
#
Name Called By:
-Noob -Ghost Recon/Console Gamers
-Newp -RPGers
-Nub -CSers
-Nubby -''
-Nubzy -''
-Pub -''
-Pubber -''
-CS -Gamer
She will also enjoy his strong and nimble fingers, whereas the lonely mouse user will have to find his own use for his strengthed wrist.
Forget thrust, drag, lift and weight. Airplanes fly because of money.
And many of us still use the most powerful keyboard ever created, the IBM (super-clicky) Model M. The sound of these keys has been known to kill users at twenty feet and drive MCSE's mad.
Also, don't forget the modus operanti of Unix tools on succesfull operation. No feedback...
How the hell do you have a dialogue with someone who won't talk with you?
If that's all you want to do, would you not be better served by a correcting typewriter? There's less to figure out, fewer boxes to clutter your desk, and "ink refills" aren't $50 a pop!
Sorry, no.
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.
Twist those knobs! Twist those knobs! You! Pull some levers! Pull some levers!
Why did GEAR crush RDP?
Apropos? Yes that's the word that springs instantly to mind when looking for help on something... Apropos. Not "help", no never. Who would ever think of typing "help"?
Government of the people, by corporate executives, for corporate profits.
I see a sysadmin speaking. Nobody else in their right mind would dare to call the command line a user interface.
When will I end this grieving ? When will my future begin ?
I wonder how many Windows users, would, if they read your post, say "Hey, what a great idea!". Reminds me of a Dilbert cartoon. Dilbert jokingly tells the PHB that in order to get more customers they should start a massive spamming campaign. When Dilbert goes home, Dogbert says "You look like someone who was just put in charge of his own sarcastic suggestion."
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.
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
even just a '%' sign for those wanting to get on with the job.
As for a name, what about 'Bob'?
How about you make it an @ sign and call it CLIppy?
just as much as I don't give a toss for how my car or my phone works.
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.
Is a man who can't intuitively program his VCR somehow less of a man?
Yes.
You know, I haven't seen a single article, on any topic, in the last 6 months where at least one person didn't try to sell me a Mac.
I'm not normally an irrational zealous dickhead, but I figure "When in Rome..."
Yeah but learning the syntax to the HELP command was a hurdle.
Relax! It's a joke!
Yeah, there needs to be another default output stream. stdin, stderr, stdout and stdidiot. Stdidiot is where you tell the user verbose output of what you are doing including positive affirmation! Jack Handy beware. Of course one should be able to setenv STDIDIOT=/dev/null to turn that off. Moreover, maybe you re-direct it into a pipe that a consolish app could tail? Then a little ticker window on the desktop closes the loop for those needing positive responses?
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.
A friend of mine once said something along the lines of: "Eventually Windows will have everything UNIX does because developers will demand it."
Well, looks like he was right. Good call, dtowne!
The enemies of Democracy are
subtle , extremely subtle.
for the last time people, I am "frodo from middle eaRTH", not "middle eaST".
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.
If a job's not worth doing, it's not worth doing right.
Something like this (v. quickly done, so might not be exactly what you're doing)
By the time I moved out I had my mother using pine over ssh to read her email.
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.
[ldab:~] selderrr% help alias
... ]
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.
Open Source Java Web Forum with LDAP authentication
(define set-him-straight
(lambda ()
(display "Learn a language that's capable of abstraction without boilerplate, dammit!")))
(set-him-straight)
It could be worse.