Ask Slashdot: Command Line Interfaces -- What Is Out There?

Mars729 writes "GUIs are walled gardens in that features available in one piece of software is not available to other pieces of software. However, there is software out there with command-line options that can make software features accessible to power users and programmers. Some important ones I have uncovered are:

• Exiftool: A command-line application that can read/write almost any kind of metadata contained in almost any filetype
• Imagemagick: This and similar software like GraphicsMagick is a full-feature toolkit for displaying, converting and editing image files.
• Irfanview: Like Imagemagick but faster, although it has much fewer features.
  FFMpeg: For video files
• VLC: For audio and video files
• Aspell: A command line spell checker
• Google Static Maps API: A URL with coordinates, markers, zoom levels and other options to show a custom map from Google Maps. (I just uncovered this: no need to learn KML!)

Less useful but still useful are command shells. These provide file management mostly. I believe some of them may allow for sending and retrieving email messages. Also useful but less accessible and with a steeper learning curve are software with APIs and scripting. Examples would be Visual Basic for Applications in office software and groovy scripting for Freeplane. What else is out there?"

Comments

What is this?

[Anonymous Coward]

This isn't worthy of being a story, we all grew up using command lines.

Re: What is this?

[Anonymous Coward]

It appears that lots of people recently have been condemned to reinvent Unix, poorly.

Re:What is this?

[msauve]

"could start saying that pop3 is a commandline then too"

It isn't?

locke:~# telnet 127.0.0.1 110
Trying 127.0.0.1...
Connected to 127.0.0.1.
Escape character is '^]'.
+OK Dovecot ready.
user myname
+OK
pass mypass
+OK Logged in.
stat
+OK 863 28261240
retr 1
+OK 3108 octets
...[email text]...

Of course, what you'll quickly find is that the OP isn't the only clueless one. Other Internet newbies like Microsoft and Google have gone out of their way to make their customer's emails illegible.

Re:What is this?

[serviscope_minor]

hate on me ALL you want but anybody who is honest will admit its true,

the hating on you will be for using a blatant "no true scotsman" fallacy, not for disliking the gui. You're a massive wanker for claiming I'm a liar because I disagree with you.

you can completely remove CLI access from Windows and OSX and ya know what? The user would be fine,most wouldn't even notice that it was gone.

Not if the user in question was me. In fact I know quite a lot of people who install the cygwin commandline stuff for Windows because the builtin commandline is not very good. And then there's the MinGW effort. Apparently enough people miss the commandline that there are not one but two competing efforts to bring a good commandline to windows.

Fiven that they're Free that means there are enough people wanting that that there are enough developers from withing that subset to make two.

That's a lot of people and you're dishonest if you don't agree, naturally.

Try removing access to the CLI for just one year in the Linux of your choice, I DARE you.

Why the fuck would I want to do that?

The first time you run into a problem the ONLY CHOICE you will have to fix it is "Open up Bash and Type"...that's it, that is all.

Well, no. That's true in some cases, but then registry hacks are true in some cases in Windows and commandline-fu is the only solution in some cases in OSX. Not sure what your point is.

Hell just ask for a non Bash solution and watch the howls of impotent rage!

So basically, you ask people to donate their time to you for free and they do. They give you an answer in a clear, succint way which doesn't involve the rather tricky comminucation of visual information in a forum and you have the entitledness to complain that they're not helping you "the right way".

Wow, you sound like an asshole.

If there is anything that Android and ARM should have taught it is that the future is NOT some 40+ year old throwback to the age of disco UIs, its intuitive, easy to discover,and easy to learn is THE way of the future!

Except that it's not unless you have very limted horizons. And ARM was in fact developed to run an OS with an integrated commandline.

So, mr. intiutive, how do I script repetitive actions in my workflow on Android?

Linux....except that too many have taken CLI as their religion, their way to "test the faith" and see if the user is "worthy" to be part of the little club.

You're the one who sounds like a religious nutball. I happen to like the commandline. I really don't care if you do. You seem to care that I like it. that's got religious quackery written all over it.

Oh and almost forgot, of course you're dishonest if you don't agree with me.

My head just exploded.

[philip.paradis]

Quoting the summary:

Less useful but still useful are command shells. These provide file management mostly. I believe some of them may allow for sending and retrieving email messages.

Yes, my head just exploded. Please pardon the mess, aggressive renovations are in progress. I'm absolutely awestruck that this made it to the front page of /., and suddenly feel extremely old at 32.

In short, if you are experiencing a lack of flexibility with GUIs, which is a completely normal response in my book, please proceed to install your favorite Linux/BSD/Whatever-nixish distribution and learn to use the following:

• Shells, at minimum a Bourne-compatible shell
• Bash, Perl, and Python
• Man pages

I really, truly, honestly, brain-explodingly do not know what else to say here. Holy crap.

Re:My head just exploded.

[mvar]

First this Tips for your new laptop and then this.
I have a feeling that there's more shitty noob advice to come on this site from now on..Holy crap indeed

"Less useful but still useful are command shells"!

[Viol8]

I'm sorry, is this a joke? The Windows command line - even with powershell - might be a crippled joke, but the unix command line allows you to control *everything* going on in the OS itself and most features of whichever Desktop you're using. Plus the ability to pipe commands together creates a level of poweruser control that is far greater than the sum of its parts. Something Microsoft took 2 decades to realise and a paradigm that a lot of Windows admins still don't "get".

What the f**king f**k?

[YuppieScum]

"GUIs are walled gardens in that features available in one piece of software is not available to other pieces of software.

Never mind it should be "are" not "is", under what circumstances would you ever be surprised that the features provided by Excel are not available in PhotoShop... with the exception of cut/copy/paste?

Did I miss a meeting where meretricious twaddle on this site became de rigour?

Maybe I should resign my ID...

Re:What the f**king f**k?

[philip.paradis]

Man, my original ID was in the 75K-ish range, and I'm seriously debating whether this was (1) a troll submission that got through, or (2) a tactical move to get folks like us to finally just say "fuck it" here and move along while Dice moves along to pursue the new, hip, trendy, GUI-loving, tablet-toting, no-fucking-idea-whatsoever-how-things-work-at-all crowd for ad views. I honestly don't know, but I can safely say this is the most ridiculous thing I've ever seen posted to this site.

Don't start bashing the curious

[cerberusss]

Obviously the submitter didn't grow up with a unix background, as lots of people here have. And now I see lots of people asking what the hell submitter is thinking, "is this a joke", "not worthy of a story" et cetera.

But think about it. Submitter came from a GUI background and now discovers the commandline. I'm thinking back when I started with Linux, feeling totally amazed about so much utilities, so much power and I kinda envy the submitter :)

So give it a rest and just chip in.

Soulskill: please don't drink and post

[wjcofkc]

GUIs are walled gardens in that features available in one piece of software is not available to other pieces of software.

Setting aside the fact that this statement makes no sense, I suspect it was crafted around using the term "walled garden" in a misguided effort to establish nerd street cred. Mission failed.

However, there is software out there with command-line options that can make software features accessible to power users and programmers.

Out of all of the CLI based software the submitter could have chosen, the selection demonstrates that they are neither a power user or a programmer.

Less useful but still useful are command shells.

Holy fuck. Seriously? What I am supposed to run my CLI based software in to begin with. Never mind everything else about a shell that runs deep.

The bullet points caught my eyes first, I knew right away it was going to be bad, but this? This article making the front page is an insult to the majority of Slashdot's user base and an affront to our intellect and skill sets. Also, it reads like it was written by a second-grader.

2014 resolution: mellow out

[hodet]

The elitists are out in full force today. Ya the submission is nothing new to many of us but instead of ripping submitter a new one why not share your knowledge with him. Back in 97 I bought Oreilly's Linux in a Nutshell reference book. That book is still on my desk today, beaten up an tattered but sill useful.

Happy New Year fellow neckbeards! ;-)