Re: top <repeat 100 times \r rant \r end repeat>
Re: top <repeat 100 times \r rant \r end repeat>
- Subject: Re: top <repeat 100 times \r rant \r end repeat>
- From: has <email@hidden>
- Date: Sun, 6 Oct 2002 21:20:30 +0100
[asbestos suits, everyone; I'm in tetchy mode again...:p]
Randal L. Schwartz wrote:
>
Well, I happen to like that "ls" is very short to type. As is "cd", which
>
was originally "chdir" in the early shells... go figure. But there's also
>
rm and mv, all very short.
>
>
I want things I type over and over again to have the fewest keystrokes.
That's fine. Efficiency comes with practice. I'm sure you'll find an
experienced Quark user knows every keyboard shortcut by heart in just the
same way.
But why not support verbose aliases for the same commands? Have text
macros/autocompletion that can intelligently expand an abbreviated form (or
even go the other way)? The ability to view a summary of common options
without having to pull up multi-page mans? To work spatially? Non-linearly?
Perhaps even... <gasp> some TYPOGRAPHY?
Moving mental and physical workload from human to machine? Isn't that what
it's all about?
>
I think the design is fine, from the perspective of an intermediate to
>
expert user. Yeah, it probably blows for a beginner,
Mmmm. But how's any newcomer supposed to get to your intermediate/expert
level if that essential first-step beginner experience "blows"?
>
but it's been
>
far too long since I was a Unix beginner (about 24 years ago), and
>
back then, there was less to learn: the kernel fit in 32kbytes(!) and
>
had only 22 system calls.
This fits with the "it suits _me_, so I why change it?" attitude I
mentioned earlier. It's only 20-21 years since I got my first 8-bit micro,
and there was very little to learn with those too. But things have changed
a lot since then, users' requirements (and expectations) are much greater
now, as is the complexity of the systems they're using. Getting that first
foot in the door is not so easy nowadays. I could learn and use a command
line aged 12, so why am I struggling now I'm thirty-something and the
technology's had _twenty_years_ to improve?
>
However, for beginners, there seems to be a nice GUI available, all
>
that X11 stuff, or Aqua-Finder if you're talking OSX.
>
So, let's have the Finder for the beginners, the command line for
>
those of us that can type much faster than we can mouse
I consider the division totally bogus. "Pretty buttons for the happy
idiots, Real Text for Real Men." Reactionary humbug.
The aforementioned Quark expert is hardly "beginner" who needs to perform
_far_ from beginner-level tasks, yet the impression I get is that either
they stay in the Finder where things are cutesy and hopelessly
underpowered. [Batch operations? Don't make me laugh! But you can paste
cute icons everywhere if you'd enjoy wasting a few hours.] Or they have to
bust a gut or ten to get up to speed on an interface that seems to make a
virtue of its intolerance towards anyone who is not of the Chosen Order.
[Batch operations? Sure, no problem. Only it'll take you a month to learn
before your first job gets run.]
Want to manage mp3s, your digital photo collections, bookmarks, etc? Forget
the Finder. Yes, I'm sure iApps have nice features for managing the
mps3/jpegs they use, but why the heck should such tools be restricted and
overspecialised and locked away in one little program? Where's the great
unix philosophy in all of this then? Or has too much time spent in vast,
monolithic "Office" clones eventually rotted any vision and common sense
away?
>
and call it good for all.
As opposed to demanding better? Wanting to see barriers broken down?
Desiring _genuine_ innovation, not the false, empty MarketDroid abuse of
the word where "iNnovation (TM)" is this season's new colour scheme.
Where's the bad in that? If you're satisfied with what you've got, good for
you. But don't go thinking everybody else should be too. The GUI King's
been dancing in the scud for the last twenty years, and the Lords of CLI
for twenty more. Just pointing out what I see.
has [who used to think HE was a misanthrope, until he met the UNIX command
line...]
--
http://www.barple.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk -- The Little Page of AppleScripts
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