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In The Beginning Was The Command Line, Updated

Posted by timothy on from the keeping-up-with-things dept.

Unqualified code-monkey Garote submits his annotated version of Neal Stephenson's In The Beginning Was The Command Line, updated to discuss UI design theory and fill in some of the gaps from the last five years. (And yes, he has been granted permission from Neal to do this.) There's plenty more to cover of course: Will the command-line last only as long as the keyboard? How will desktop search technology change our workflow? What about the 3D interface? Scroll to any random paragraph in the essay and you'll find something worth expounding on. What's ahead for the next five years?

20 of 416 comments (clear)

  1. I thought it was something else... by sgant · · Score: 4, Funny

    I thought in the beginning was the "punch card".

    Talk about a bad UI!

    --

    "Leo Fender was in a 'state of grace' when he designed the Stratocaster." -- Paul Reed Smith
    1. Re:I thought it was something else... by Criffer · · Score: 5, Funny

      Punch cards? You were lucky! All we had were toggle switches where you programmed individual bits; one at a time, until memory were full. All 512 bytes of it!

    2. Re:I thought it was something else... by Zerth · · Score: 3, Funny

      Analytical engine? I had to rearrange 300 children with abacuses!

    3. Re:I thought it was something else... by monkey_jam · · Score: 2, Funny

      Gear wheels! bah! luxury!
      In my day, we organised lizards into logic gates! Put their tails in the mouth of another, when the first bit the second would to!
      And we liked it! snow, uphill etc...

  2. Best Slashdot sig ever read by Petronius · · Score: 4, Funny

    "I was raised on the command line, bitch"

    --
    there's no place like ~
    1. Re:Best Slashdot sig ever read by atriusofbricia · · Score: 2, Funny

      Stolen :)

      --
      I was raised on the command line, bitch

      "Nemo me impune lacesset"

  3. GUIs? by Kippesoep · · Score: 3, Funny

    What is this GUI thing you speak of, you young whippersnapper? I'll use a command line 'til my dying day, pounding the keys with my cane if I have to.

  4. In the beginning there was the soldering iron... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    and a few days later Adam had a nasty accident that was due to his nakedness...

  5. I remember my ole cobol prof. by roegerle · · Score: 5, Funny

    "The only good thing about windows is I can run multiple sessions of DOS."

  6. You don't get it by truth_revealed · · Score: 3, Funny

    Three digits were turning to zero for God's sake! We're lucky to escape with our lives. Remember what happened to people in the year 1000? Of course not - because they did not adjust their computer code to handle Y1K and they all perished.

    1. Re:You don't get it by truth_revealed · · Score: 2, Funny

      See - just thinking of Y2K made me post to the wrong story.

  7. Re:Real computing by Ph33r+th3+g(O)at · · Score: 3, Funny

    As a fellow language nerd, while "queue" (as in "queue the 'it's all Greek to me" jokes) works, particularly with this audience, I think the word you're looking for is "cue." (See some discussion here)

    --
    I too have felt the cold finger of injustice.
  8. Re:voice commands by turgid · · Score: 2, Funny
    Sooner or later most computers will accept voice commands.

    Please no! I find it difficult enough making myself understood to other human beings.

    --
    Stick Men
  9. Ignorant young pups... by RoboOp · · Score: 3, Funny
    Keyboards were for secretaries.
    In the beginning there were a bank of switches.
    AND WE LIKED IT LIKE THAT.

    If you couldn't be bothered to translate the error codes from hex and look them up in the manual, who needed ya?

    Now scram. It's grandpa's naptime.

    --
    "First you get the Linux, then you get the power, THEN you get the women"
  10. Re:As long as the keyboard? by zulux · · Score: 3, Funny

    Keyboard ain't going anywhere. Expect it to exist for as long as there are words to type.

    lol - u r gr8.

    --

    Moneyed corporations, non-working 'poor' and criminal prisoners are turning productive citizens into tax-slaves.

  11. Re:the command line already survived the keyboard by timster · · Score: 5, Funny

    You have to specify "tea" so that it doesn't replicate up a grey Earl ("Earl, Grey")

    You have to specify "hot" because the company that makes the replicators lost a lawsuit.

    --
    I have seen the future, and it is inconvenient.
  12. Does this mean we finally got rid of AC? by sesaetaen · · Score: 3, Funny

    "If Jakob Nielson's useit.com is ever linked to again on Slashdot, I will add "127.0.0.1 slashdot.org" to /etc/hosts"

    3 lines below, AC cuts off the very branch he sits on:

    "The UseIt article is 6 years old. The advances in 3D desktops, screen resolutions and HCI devices have improved since then. Link value = 0 --Blade-Melbourne"

    Good riddance ;)

  13. Re:As long as the keyboard? by kent_eh · · Score: 2, Funny


    A keyboard. How quaint.

    </Scotty>

    c'mon, you know you were thinking it.

    --

    ---
    "I can't complain, but sometimes still do..." Joe Walsh
  14. expounding by krgallagher · · Score: 3, Funny
    "Scroll to any random paragraph in the essay and you'll find something worth expounding on."

    OK I had to try this. Here is the random paragraph:

    "The Microsoft Gorilla, on the other hand, cannot be trained. Instead, you must keep rephrasing your directions until the MS Gorilla can comprehend them. He consumes both front seats, lowering the mileage of your car, and blocking most of your view. Though he sounds like a bad deal, MS Gorilla is actually extremely popular, because he looks impressive, drives aggressively, and keeps his mouth shut. If you speak in his limited vocabulary, he will take you Where You Want To Go Today ... especially if he can plow monkeys off the intervening road. However, if you touch anything on the dashboard, or try to haggle with him over the exact route, he may become irritated and casually drive your car into a telephone pole. People learn to not argue."

    WOW! What a great image. It does a great job of describing Microsoft's OS too. In fact that is why I don't care for Microsoft. I like to fiddle with the dashboard. I'm always changing the radio station or adjusting the temperature.

    --

    Insert Generic Sig Here:

  15. Re:Abacuses? by mo^ · · Score: 2, Funny

    far enough!!!

    in my day this would have run 18 levels deep and still had time for a quick python reference

    --
    bah!*@%!