Re: Setting up searches in Xcode (Re: Xcode + Leopard at WWDC this year)
Re: Setting up searches in Xcode (Re: Xcode + Leopard at WWDC this year)
- Subject: Re: Setting up searches in Xcode (Re: Xcode + Leopard at WWDC this year)
- From: David Masover <email@hidden>
- Date: Wed, 26 Jul 2006 01:43:35 -0500
Mark Munz wrote:
I disagree with this assertion. For example, I believe that the CLI is
too often used as a crutch (cop-out) for not being able to provide a
real UI.
Indeed? Then provide me a real UI for scripting my system, which allows
me to do things like this in (literally) seconds (or as long as they
take to type):
for i in *.m3u; do sed 's#/Users/sanity/Desktop/music/#../#g' < $i >
$i.new && mv $i.new $i; done
Oh yes, you could come up with a real UI for that one -- strip a given
directory out of the pathname in an m3u file. But I bet I can type that
faster than almost any GUI would let me. And using the same technique,
I can perform any number of search/replace on files. Here's another
common one -- suppose I want to take my desktop files around on my
laptop, and want to save space. Here's a script to swap in a copy of a
particular album from my desktop computer (running Linux) to my laptop:
# using artist bar, album foo
oggenc `cat ../../playlists/bar-foo.m3u`
scp *.ogg sanity@eve:~/Desktop/music/bar/foo
cd ../../playlists
sed 's/\.flac\n?$/\.ogg\n?$/g' < 'bar-foo.m3u' > ../bar-foo.m3u
scp ../bar-foo.m3u sanity@eve:~/Desktop/music/playlists/
rm ../bar-foo.m3u
Thought up on the fly, about as fast as I typed it here -- may fail, but
I doubt it. Needs maybe 60 seconds more tweaking, and I can have it do
my entire collection.
Could you do a GUI for this? Yes, but I just strung together a program
to do exactly what I need from tools that were laying around.
Basically, you could provide a "proper UI", by making a GUI for the
commandline. You'd string together commands in a flowchart-like view,
it would turn arrows into | symbols...
And once you were done with said perfect UI, even if you somehow read
all the documentation and made a system so easy you could use it without
docs, so natural my grandmother could use it... what then?
I think this proves my point:
http://www.neoworks.com/products/free/quickcmd/index.html
My boss uses this, and he's a 100% Windows guy in a 90% Windows shop.
The graphics designer and me make up the other 10%. And yet, he found
the commandline useful enough...
My point, then, is that the commandline is faster, and will always be
faster, for all kinds of things. I'm not talking about cpu cycles, I'm
talking about keystrokes vs mouse clicks.
CW didn't require you to deal with the command line options for most
projects. Does that make a CW user any less of a "power-user" than an
Xcode user? I don't believe so.
If CW also lets you manually edit the commandline, overriding anything
set in its checkboxes and such, then you're right. Otherwise, you're
assuming CW has a checkbox for every single gcc option.
IDEs are supposed to make a developer's job easier. I've had my share
of makefile-base projects in the past and they are a pain. I'm sure
there are others that disagree, but then why bother with the Mac at
all if you want to stay with a command line.
Superior hardware, at least with the older stuff, and the GUI is very,
very nice. That doesn't mean I'll shun the commandline.
Or, let me put it this way: You use gmail, right? Well, if you're just
going to use stay with the web, why have a Mac at all? Just buy an
Internet appliance, or run Knoppix on the cheapest damn PC you can find...
Ah, but you DO run desktop apps for most other things.
In my case, it's probably 65%-35%, not sure which way. I'm sending this
from Thunderbird, because I believe it can do email as well as any Pine
or Mutt, and it's easier to set up things like PGP, as well as a few
other things. I browse the web in Firefox, and do it mostly with the
mouse. But I do most of my coding with vim, then compile it with a
commandline.
And as I find myself wondering "why bother with a Mac at all", I work
harder at making the wireless and touchpad work on my Linux, so I can
stop booting OS X. I guess if I go through with that, I should get off
this list, right?
I've seen this type of argument come up again and again in the
developer community. It reminds me of the old days when CLI guys
always talking about WIMP users.
Maybe. I'm only usually an elitist snob about things that I believe
should be taught in school. Commandline, not necessarily. Crypto, at
least the basic theory of security, absolutely.
I guess, like black-hat "hackers", I'm drawn to the easier targets. And
it's just too easy to make fun of whatever moron sent their social
security number in plaintext over email.
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