On Sat, 29 Mar 2003, Martin McCormick wrote: > The thing I find interesting is that the new > Macintosh OS-X now has a command line mode in > addition to the GUI. Likely impractical to avoid (not that they would want to), since it is a BSDish Unixen, and can run linux stuff. But of course that is no doubt largely invisible to the average user (as it can be on linux as well). And remember that the lack of a unix like scripting and remote text mode environment for M$ windows server environments, for administration and automation, was a sufficient problem that M$ bought out an old company that made a set of such tools for that environment, and made those (some say inferior) tools available as a typically pricey add on. > I hear normally-sighted computer users say that some > things really are easier in command mode than they > are in GUI mode because you have tighter control > over complex operations. It's even better than that, for those who know the command line. Both GUI and text mode are available at the same time, and depending on the context and operation, both simple and complex tasks can be easier in text mode. Of course repetitive tasks can be automated and simplified fairly easily with simple and complex scripts, aliases, and the like, where the GUI would be a real pain to use. For instance, just ask yourself if you would rather navigate a text mode menu or file manager to find a file when you can't remember the full name: in the zsh shell you can find it in any subdirectory by something like "ls **/*some*name*". After all, much of the GUI mode is just (often more cryptic) menus. And there are many things that would be nearly impossible or impractical in GUI mode, that are relatively simple with text. Except that the script and text environments are powerful enough to support a GUI interface, when desired: much GUI stuff is scripted, or even uses a text and/or script backend that can be used standalone, so the dividing line is blurred, and generalizations easily break down. LCR _______________________________________________ Blinux-list@xxxxxxxxxx https://listman.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/blinux-list