In The Beginning Was The Command Line, Updated

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?

Comments

A writer

[jafac]

I am nearly finished with Cryptonomicon. It's every bit as great as I was told here, by other slashdotters, about two months ago, when I started.

His style is really hard to describe, but I think I've figured it out, and I understand why it bothers me.

He writes like a Dungeon Master/GM. It's partially the Present Tense he uses, but also, the narration of scenarios. This is the part of his prose I don't like. Some of the ridiculous scenarios. He managed to avoid it through most of Diamond Age. Which is why I really liked that book.
The other half of his writing is well researched, brilliant stuff. The redeeming qualities of Snow Crash were the bits about ancient Babylonian mythology, and how it was the driving force in the plotline. I'm in the part in Cryptonimicon where he gives Greek mythology the same treatment. I think I first read something like this back in High School - the parts of The Vampire Lestat that I thought were really great. Similar stuff in Umberto Eco, and Thomas Pynchon, and even Robert Aston Wilson. This is the kind of stuff that, when I read it, I think, "man, I could NEVER write something like this" - just imagining not only the sheer amount of research, but the depth of understanding, to the point where a totally unique point of view on the subject emerges, and is woven into the story.

Truly great stuff. Thanks to all who recommended it.