You know, the fact about needing to remember how you get somewhere is interesting to me. I could “see” that as a mouse user, having to remember visual interfaces and where to click when could get confusing. Perhaps we blind people have our own little command line, even in visual interfaces. We use the keyboard only, so we tab around interfaces, or do keyboard commands to activate something quickly. Although, yes, if an interface is big and clunky, we do have to tab around a lot to get to where we need to go. But usually, it’s not that bad; we can usually use a keyboard command to do much of anything on interfaces, making a new message, opening a window, saving a file, renaming a file, all that.
> On Jun 8, 2020, at 2:13 PM, George N. White III <[email protected]> wrote: > > On Mon, 8 Jun 2020 at 13:59, Beartooth <[email protected] > <mailto:[email protected]>> wrote: > In another thread, Bob Marcan wrote: > > > Seems almost nobody is using the command line. > > GUI for everything. > > I like to see how will they solve the repetitive task. > > Well, what follows seems typical enough to be of possible interest. > > I've been around long enough to know only too well that the CLI is > preferable when feasible. The problem is remembering the commands, to the > point where your fingers know them. I began with a prodigious memory, and > ran it flat out for decades; so now in old age it's way full. > > But visual spatial memory, fortunately, seems to occupy a > different register. It's slower and less sharp. To answer what I has > clicked on, I was not able to rattle off a list, but had to go back and > reconstruct it -- including recovering a couple times from errors. But I > got there. The first false fork with the CLI'd've lost me. > > As an undergraduate, I could get a timesharing account. It used > a teletype terminal and you could (with luck) save your code to > paper tape. In grad school I had access to an IBM mainframe > and a keypunch machine. With those systems it was really > important to read and understand the manuals and put a lot > of care into every line of code. You also had to be frugal with > resources, so it was important to understand how memory and > mass storage were configured. > > Today, youngsters learn that computers allow you to try things and > nothing really bad happens when you get it wrong, so we have > moved from engineered to experimental workflows. The latter, > however, seem somehow tangled up with GUI's ("What does that > button do?"). I have found it hard to get students in a > command-line workshop to try experiments like creating a file, > storing it in a tar archive, deleting it, and restoring from the > archive. > > How is it that "a picture is worth a thousand words" yet current > GUI's hide important details. For years we had folders that all > looked the same even when they reside on very different filesystems. > Why do icons for disks often look like trashcans? At least Gnome > now uses a file cabinet icon for Files app, but it could be animated > to convey some information about the status, such as starting to > bulge when it is over 80% full, falling over when the disk's S.M.A.R.T. > status indicates a failure, etc. > > I find that many younger biologists who delve into remote sensing > or GIS, both often stretch the capabilities of the average PC, > are vague on the difference between RAM and mass storage, > so after seeing a device full error will ask if they can have the > RAM upgraded. My Prius can display a simple diagram showing > when energy is flowing into the battery, etc. Why don't GUI's have > similar diagrams for CPU load, storage space, and RAM usage? > > -- > George N. White III > > _______________________________________________ > users mailing list -- [email protected] > To unsubscribe send an email to [email protected] > Fedora Code of Conduct: > https://docs.fedoraproject.org/en-US/project/code-of-conduct/ > List Guidelines: https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Mailing_list_guidelines > List Archives: > https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/[email protected]
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