Re: Larkin, Power BASIC cannot be THAT good:

On a sunny day (Tue, 26 May 2009 09:15:23 -0700) it happened "Joel Koltner"
<zapwireDASHgroups@xxxxxxxxx> wrote in
<xAUSl.38457$4p1.15688@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>:

"Jan Panteltje" <pNaonStpealmtje@xxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:gvgi8b$6a0$1@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
And, a lot of small console programs, as you call them, or command line
utilities
as I call them in Linux, can in Linux be chained together to do anything you
want.

True, although one problem with *NIX command line utilities is that there's no
standardization in how control parameters are passed to them. Well, OK, a lot
of the newer distributions have tried to "harmonize" this at least for the
"core" utilities, but it's still a major PITA at times.

Usually I write command line processing by using getopt(), some apps
get so big you run out of letters in the alphabet for the command line flags.
Then you would have to use the long options.


Microsoft's PowerShell got this right... instead of using standard text input
and output, they just pass objects around (in a chain, if desired), and all
the "options" parsing is just calling methods on a well-defined object.

Command line is like handing the shopkeeper the shopping list.
But it does require people to know how to read and write.

It's like handing the shopkeeper the shopping list, but only after he's handed
you his inventory list and reminded you that your shopping list has to
precisely match the items on his inventory list or he'll just barf and
typically not do anything at all for you.

I personally spend much of my time at a command line, but GUIs definitely have
their place.

Now think when you have to repeat a command,. say a call to ffmpeg, its easy on the command line
nice -n 19 mcamip -x -f 2 -t -a 10.0.0.151 -p 80 -u USERNAME -w PASSWORD -y 2>mcamip-log | \
nice -n 19 ffmpeg -f yuv4mpegpipe -i - -f avi -vcodec h264 -r 2 -b 10 -g 300 -bf 2 -y camera4.avi \
1>/dev/zero 2>/dev/zero &

Just cursor up, and ENTER to repeat.
Now if you have to tick boxes in some GUI... and enter filenames... again
after exiting that program...
And when doing this sort of thing that happens hundreds of times a day.
I have used that sort of GUI programs in MS windows, many people write that sort of stuff.
It will drive you mad...


OK, I was teasing the OOB guys a bit :-)
But you know shopping malls,supermarkets, you walk in there with your
basket, and fill it up with whatever you see on the shelves that you
at that moment *think* you want, or, if the package is done nicely, attracts you to buy it,
even if you did not need it, and it was not on your list.
The shopkeeper knows this, it is called 'impulse buying', it makes
him sell more.
It loads you basket with *BLOAT*, same as with GUI.
If I want the net status I can just type 'netstat' in my xterm (or console if you are
X-less), no need to go through 12 pull down menus or traverse trees in a window manager / 'explorer',
much faster to just type that word, if you know what you want.
A good shopkeeper *will* find your stuff, he will remember you from your
previous shopping visits, and even get specially requested stuff.
I use the zsh shell, if I had a hundred commands typed in the recent past,
all I have to do is type the first few characters of the one I typed ages ago,
say ./xi
and then use cursor up, zsh then proposes:
grml: ~ # xine rio-grande_part1.ts
grml: ~ # xine Astra2_C5.00h24.26-5-2009-126m.ts

zsh is a more powerful shell then bash, bash has some nice features too.
I have a GUI (run X), but it is only to start very frequently used apps, and even those are often
started from a script with the correct parameters when you click on the icon.

But I am not denying the use of GUI, it is nice in this newsreader NewsFleX that I wrote,
but I do not change the layout of the buttons ... every so many month.


.

Quantcast