Tim wrote:
On Wed, 2005-10-05 at 09:29 -0600, Robin Laing wrote:
In my experience the GUI is a major headache for many tasks. It is
slow and cumbersome. Many times in a week I have to change file names
or organize data files. I can do this in CLI in seconds. In the GUI
it take hours. Moving 200 grouped, non-sorted files from one
directory to another is a simple command in the CLI. In the GUI it
takes a bunch of pointing and clicking.
In the CLI it takes a lot of typing, changing paths, typing in new
names, working out the syntax for your wildcarding/renaming rules.
With a GUI there are wildcarding/batch selection tools, tools which take
much of the headache out of remembering the syntax. A little bit of
pointing and clicking makes it easy to shift 200 JPEGs from one place to
another and rename them according to a pattern, for instance.
Changing directories is also a pain in most GUI's that I have used.
Especially when there are deep tree's. Also editing files is much
quicker from a CLI than a GUI. In a term window type in ghex2
{path}/{filename} and it opens. In the GUI, open application, click
through all the various folders to get to the correct file and open.
Again, in the CLI you've got to type out the new filepaths. It's just
as hard to navigate into deeply nested trees, and even harder to keep on
changing between different directories. And when it comes to editing
files, I find a windowed editor much easier to quickly scroll through,
scanning the content with my eyes, and adjusting what I want where I
want, rather than paging through in a TUI.
The common argument that CLI is superior to *the* GUI seems to hinge on
arguing that the CLI is superior to some *particular* crap GUIs that the
person has to put up with. When it comes to file management, I'm yet to
find anything that makes things easier than using Directory Opus
(whether that be the Amiga or PC version, and I don't mean the
two-window pane thing it was at version 4).
I respond that with tab completion, navagating trees or anything is
still allot easier than any GUI I have tried. Tab completion can even
help when I get confused as it will give me a list of possible names.
If I am doing various things from the CLI, I can use the arrow keys
and get back to previous command via history.
Also using aliases, I can change the options of the key programs to
provide improved operation of the various applications.
And the one thing that really turns me off of many GUI interfaces is
the preview of the files. This really slows things down. Especially
on directories that have a couple of thousand files in it. I know
that it is an option on many viewers but it is a pain.
From the CLI, I can find files, run videos, rename, move or delete
files, all without moving my hands from the keyboard.
I have tried many different file managers and I still end up moving
back to the CLI for what I do.
And Opus looks like Nautilus.
It is simple, every person finds what makes their life easier. I find
that in most cases, the CLI is better for me. Heck, I even like using
Pine to read mail from time to time.
--
Robin Laing
