Comments on: Why The Command Line Still Rules http://philcrissman.com/2007/03/17/why-the-command-line-still-rules Web Development, startups, entrepreneurship, books, art, and other stuff Thu, 20 Nov 2008 16:46:34 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.6.3 By: Phil Crissman http://philcrissman.com/2007/03/17/why-the-command-line-still-rules#comment-1280 Phil Crissman Mon, 19 Mar 2007 19:12:13 +0000 http://www.philcrissman.com/2007/03/17/why-the-command-line-still-rules/#comment-1280 Sigh... Yes. Once again, I must agree... my example highlight a bug in a GUI rather than a specific reason the command line actually, in fact, rules. However, in my defense, I was writing this with the present state of desktop Linux in mind... in which case buggy GUIs, much as I hate to admit it, are still a fact of life. To really express that, I should have written the post differently -- I think what I was <em>really</em> thinking is that, in this case, had I not known to use the command line, I would have been stuck. With pipes/redirection/scripting and other features, the command line has abilities that not only shouldn't be put into a GUI, but <em>can't</em> be... You're right though, my example did not demonstrate that. Sigh…

Yes. Once again, I must agree… my example highlight a bug in a GUI rather than a specific reason the command line actually, in fact, rules.

However, in my defense, I was writing this with the present state of desktop Linux in mind… in which case buggy GUIs, much as I hate to admit it, are still a fact of life. To really express that, I should have written the post differently — I think what I was really thinking is that, in this case, had I not known to use the command line, I would have been stuck.

With pipes/redirection/scripting and other features, the command line has abilities that not only shouldn’t be put into a GUI, but can’t be… You’re right though, my example did not demonstrate that.

]]> By: mrben http://philcrissman.com/2007/03/17/why-the-command-line-still-rules#comment-1279 mrben Mon, 19 Mar 2007 09:56:32 +0000 http://www.philcrissman.com/2007/03/17/why-the-command-line-still-rules/#comment-1279 While I agree with your sentiment, I think your example is poor. What you are describing is a bug in the GUI environment, which should be fixed (and I suspect is fixed in Feisty). Your implication from this example is not that the command line is good, but rather than the GUI is bad/broken, which is unhelpful. The CLI _is_ great, and provides a level of functionality that should not be placed in a GUI, and some things are just handled better in the CLI. GUIs are also great, and provide a level of intuitivity and simplicity that is difficult from the CLI. While I agree with your sentiment, I think your example is poor. What you are describing is a bug in the GUI environment, which should be fixed (and I suspect is fixed in Feisty). Your implication from this example is not that the command line is good, but rather than the GUI is bad/broken, which is unhelpful.

The CLI _is_ great, and provides a level of functionality that should not be placed in a GUI, and some things are just handled better in the CLI. GUIs are also great, and provide a level of intuitivity and simplicity that is difficult from the CLI.

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