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by hungerstrike 3260 days ago
GUIs are objectively better for every single task. Given a proper choice, 100% of users would choose a GUI over the command line. I have no doubt about this in my mind.

Unfortunately, GUIs are still more difficult to build well. Once that is no longer true, the command line will soon cease to exist.
2 comments
defined 3253 days ago
> GUIs are objectively better for every single task

If they are objectively better for every single task, there will be metrics and studies that prove this objectively. Kindly cite these studies and metrics. I don't think they exist.

I refute the quoted statement with two words: headless servers. Oh, and REPLs. And CLIs embedded in so-called GUIs. In many cases, GUIs contain command-line emulators. Think of, say, Wireshark's filters, or any JavaScript console.

Maybe you are railing against text-mode displays, as opposed to terminal emulation programs that use graphics to emulate a text-mode display?

> Given a proper choice... No true Scotsman...?

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kruczek 3259 days ago
Can you even imagine Turing-complete GUI? That's what would be necessary to rival Turing-completeness of scripting in CLI.

And even if such GUI would be created, I don't think it would be any easier to understand than learning CLI commands. And it would require significant overhead to use; consider for example how you would search files for content matching a regex - in CLI I simply type in the regex one-liner, but in GUI I guess I'd have to click around visually building the regex? This would be a nightmare to use.

GUIs definitely are not a good tool for vast range of tasks.

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hungerstrike 3258 days ago
Why would I even want a Turing complete interface? So I can program it? No thanks! Sounds tedious. I want to get my work done, not create more work.

Regex is also not the CLI, it's a text-pattern matching DSL that you enter into your CLI as an argument. There's nothing stopping anyone from using regex patterns in a GUI.

If I had to type regex patterns I'd much, much rather type them into a GUI instead of a CLI because when I do this, the results can be instantly actionable without any further thought. Instead of having to do more CLI-programming to act on the results, I can typically act on them immediately in a GUI.

Better than regex though would be a simple GUI for handling the most common cases (match case, match whole-word, etc - the options that most IDEs offer) and a yes - visual builder for making complex rules for the more complex cases. I'll take a well-built visual builder any day of the week over a textual representation of a regex pattern that I have to use rote memorization or external references to understand.

Today's GUI systems are definitely not a good tool for a vast range of tasks. That's not my point though. GUIs have the potential to be way, way better than any CLI but unfortunately there are a lot of things holding them back like market forces and unimaginative people. I fully expect those things to change at some point, but probably not in my lifetime.

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kruczek 3256 days ago
> Why would I even want a Turing complete interface? So I can program it? No thanks! Sounds tedious. I want to get my work done, not create more work.

Well, you wouldn't, I would. Much better to get the work done, perhaps save it in a small script, and next time simply run it. Yes, I know GUIs tend to offer macros, but no way I'm going to trust them doing something without being able to see exactly what they try to do.

> Regex is also not the CLI, it's a text-pattern matching DSL that you enter into your CLI as an argument. There's nothing stopping anyone from using regex patterns in a GUI.

So you're not arguing for a full GUI, you still expect parts of the input to be entered as some cryptic text commands (which essentially is the same as CLI).

> I'll take a well-built visual builder any day of the week over a textual representation of a regex pattern that I have to use rote memorization or external references to understand.

That's fine, but it'd still be much slower to click out a complex regex in GUI, than to just type it out in CLI (not to mention I'd have to check the text regex generated by the GUI anyway, to make sure whatever I clicked out is actually what I want). You could say it's a good tradeoff of convenience vs speed, but that doesn't make GUI nowhere near "objectively better for every single task".

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