Linked by Greg Afinogenov on Wed 3rd Sep 2003 07:19 UTC
It is not fashionable nowadays to speak of the merits of the command line, in an age where things like streaming video and Aqua are an integral part of our daily life. However, I do not think that typed-in commands must necessarily be consigned to the dustbin of computer history. Of course, I am not suggesting that we all drop X and Windows and pretend like we are living in the early eighties. The command line interface still has much to offer us, and many of its benefits simply cannot physically be emulated or even replaced by graphical ones.
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Does anyone remember the DOS telecommunications program called Telemate that was popular back in the DOS days?
Not only did Telemate have fancy things under the hood like its own multithreaded kernel (allowing for background tasks like file transfers even under DOS) and its own DOS prompt emulator, but it also had what could only be described as a text-mode GUI, complete with overlapping resizable windows, scroll bars, and both keybaord and mouse controls.
That was over ten years ago, and it's not alone in being a text-mode program with a relatively sophisticated interface.
Right now, I'm using a text-mode web browser to write this message called Links (no, not lynx -- the links browser shows frames and even general web site text colors PROPERLY on an 80x25 console screen), and it's a text-mode program which command-line options and the whole works, but it also has a set of drop-down menus and even mouse support for those who prefer not to memorize keystrokes.
Same with the text-mode FTP client I use here under various platforms (NFTP). It has menus and mouse support, and it lets me select files via point-and-shoot just like a GUI program. But it isn't. It's all text.
Even the command shell that I use here under OS/2 (4OS2, a now-freeware sibling of the of the fairly popular commercial 4DOS and 4NT shells by J.P. Software) has a nice online help system and allows for a relatively intuitive point-and-shoot interface for almost ANY command via the SELECT command, has a nice visual command history selection box via the PgUp/PgDn keystrokes, and a visual program selection dialog via the F7 key. You don't have to know the name of a program to run it from 4OS2 any more than you do in a GUI.
Features like pull-down menus, mouse support, and online help make the CLI pretty darn user-friendly in my book, at least as long as the user in question gets over their irrational fear that many people seem to have about command lines.