"There are several possible reasons why you might choose to use the command line interface as your desktop environment. For one thing, it uses less electricity, so you could maximize battery life on your laptop computer. Secondly, it forces you to think about your operating system and directory structure in a totally different way than a GUI does; this could greatly enhance your understanding of GNU/Linux and cause you to be more creative in your technological problem solving. And thirdly, everyone will think you're a supreme computer genius for ditching X11 for the CLI. People passing by your desk will think you're some kind of computer god. Who doesn't want that?"
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Member since:2005-06-29
No, the CLI is not limiting with regards to expressiveness. In fact, if you have been following this thread, my argument is that the CLI is actually more expressive than the GUI, that is if the GUI is expressive at all.
From a technical point of view, most GUIs are callbacks to a "restricted" set of commands often constructed by a programmer. You can't sequence the commands, you can't perform conditional operations on these commands, sometimes you can't even repeat these commands, unless you click again, among many other limitations.
GUIs leave you at the beckon and call of the GUI designer, which is a good thing in my opinion, but at the expense of expressiveness. Most people have no need for expressive interfaces, but to argue the CLI is dated because we now have GUIs is silly and ignorant.
Member since:2005-11-27
Once again, you seem to have missed the point. You can't use concrete examples as definite proof that one abstract concept is better ("more expressive") than another abstract concept. There is nothing intrinsic in said concepts that would lead to the conclusion that one is more expressive than the other, and even if there was, the only way to prove it would be to do so on theoretical terms. If you don't get it, fine, that's not my problem, just don't keep repeating the same tired idea over and over again that has been proven wrong!
Member since:
2005-07-06
oh no, you provided an example where CLI is better and suddenly you are completely right? Please.
You you understand what the word "expressive" means? Do you understand that CLI is limiting too?