| > What the GUI can never do well is work with things outside the CWD This I believe you. (My idea of operating system design does not have directory structures, though.) > Honestly I don’t see there’s any reason we don’t introduce both modes to every user. I think it is a good idea, although good documentation will help with both modes. > but until GUI frameworks are scriptable by default, with some embedded scripting language (don’t care which) that’s ubiquitously present in every window even if the writer of the app knows nothing about it My idea of operating system design involves: Although the GUI windows themself do not have a scripting language, command-line windows use a scripting language called "Command, Automation, and Query Language", and can interact with all windows in the system, even if the writer of the app knows nothing about it (although if they do know about it, that can help too). (The combination of the widget library with the security model of the operating system also has a side effect of allowing GUI interactions to be recorded as well.) > My guess is the work necessary to make CLIs more ergonomic is smaller than the work needed to make GUIs more scriptable, but I could be wrong. I don't know, although it is helpful to do both, since CLIs and GUIs are both useful. |