[bitwize]

AutoCAD definitely was CLI-based, with menus and dialogs basically filling in parameters to the commands. But in the late 90s or so Autodesk got religion and decided that AutoCAD should be a Windows product and follow Microsoft UI guidelines, so I don't know how well they stuck with the "command line underneath" over the years.

Early in AutoCAD's history, Autodesk did add loops and conditionals to its CLI -- with Lisp! Type an open paren and the command line became a REPL. You could define new commands, directly manipulate entity data structures, and have all the control structures Lisp affords -- not Common Lisp, it was way simpler, but it was powerful.

To this day, wayward mech engineers still sometimes ask Autolisp-related questions on unrelated Lisp fora, such as r/lisp.

[rzzzt]

I was just trying to address the parent and others' doubt that a graphical user interface can be thought of as a command-based paradigm, seen in these threads:

- https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36395900

- https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36397115 (we are here)

- https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36395727

The designers behind the examples mentioned wanted to expose and capitalize on the connection between traditional "type command" CLI and "press button, drag rectangle" GUI workflows.