Linked by Richard Wareham on Mon 8th Mar 2004 20:49 UTC
This essay describes the surprising results of a brief trial with a group of new computer users about the relative ease of the command line interface versus the GUIs now omnipresent in computer interfaces. It comes from practical experience I have of teaching computing to complete beginners or newbies as computer power-users often term them.
Permalink for comment
To read all comments associated with this story, please click here.
To read all comments associated with this story, please click here.
Studies have shown that 4 to 5 letter words are the easiest to remember if they relate to something. That is why most of the "curse" words consist of 4 to 5 letters (please, I did not say all).
I personally like a CLI so please do not construe my commensts as negative. If one thinks about how language develops one will have to face the world of pointing, grunting, and visible objects. If a child points at the cookie jar and says, "Uh" you at least know that he is pointing at an object. If he says it twice then you know he wants an action to take place. This was the start of the single and double mouse click functions.
We learned words to describe objects first. But we do not refer to tables, chairs, windows, etc in our mind as words. If one hears the word, "gorilla" one does not see the spelled word. Rather, your mind pictures a gorilla. Words are used to describe what is in our minds.
The early man hunters did not need words to convey messages. They pointed and made gestures. Baseball players do the same thing today.
A GUI is useful when it reflects the world we already know. Those things that we see and interpret. It is easier to teach a person to recognize poison ivy by sight then to have them describe it. "I know it when I see it" approach.
To me, the main problem with a GUI is that none of the GUIs being used today is very consistant in the usage of objects. For example how do you whether an icon is a button and only needs to be clicked once while another icon needs a doubleclick? It was obvious when buttons "looked" like buttons but today not all buttons look like buttons.
Conclusion:
A computer newbie will always be a better computer user when you give them a visual picture to understand some of the underlying structure (files, for example) whether they use the CLI or GUI. As some have already pointed out, the use of applications requiring command line commands will not be able to give the level of complexity required of most modern programs. Hence, the GUI is very helpful. On the other hand, I can type in a simple CLI command to copy or backup all the documents in Word and that is easier than using a GUI.
Pick your preferable interface but do not expect the world to follow your decision. Isn't it wonderful to have diversity.