Comments on: Wolfram Alpha – Re-Inventing the Command Line http://www.thingsontop.com/wolfram-alpha-reinventing-command-line-768.html Search User Experience Tue, 07 Feb 2012 06:22:34 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 hourly 1 By: Vegard Sandvold http://www.thingsontop.com/wolfram-alpha-reinventing-command-line-768.html/comment-page-1/#comment-1264 Vegard Sandvold Wed, 01 Jul 2009 17:51:28 +0000 http://www.thingsontop.com/?p=768#comment-1264 I hate to disappoint you, Bill, but I (the author) use bash on my Ubuntu laptop on a daily basis. Like you I cherish the tab completion and man pages, ut even though most *NIX shells are better than DOS, they're still a far cry from being intuitive and self-explanatory. Did you know that 'ls' is an abreviation of '<strong>l</strong>ist file<strong>s</strong>'? Were you able to figure it out by yourself when you sat down by the terminal for the first time? I didn't. Have you ever struggled to make a complicated move or copy command work as intended? I have. Have you every accidentally deleted some really important files? I have. Please, read Jono DiCarlo blog post, and let me know if you still think that I'm unjustly picking on the usability of command lines. http://humanized.com/weblog/2008/07/21/language-based-interfaces-part-1-the-problem/ I hate to disappoint you, Bill, but I (the author) use bash on my Ubuntu laptop on a daily basis. Like you I cherish the tab completion and man pages, ut even though most *NIX shells are better than DOS, they’re still a far cry from being intuitive and self-explanatory.

Did you know that ‘ls’ is an abreviation of ‘list files‘? Were you able to figure it out by yourself when you sat down by the terminal for the first time? I didn’t. Have you ever struggled to make a complicated move or copy command work as intended? I have. Have you every accidentally deleted some really important files? I have.

Please, read Jono DiCarlo blog post, and let me know if you still think that I’m unjustly picking on the usability of command lines.

http://humanized.com/weblog/2008/07/21/language-based-interfaces-part-1-the-problem/

]]> By: Bill Lionheart http://www.thingsontop.com/wolfram-alpha-reinventing-command-line-768.html/comment-page-1/#comment-1261 Bill Lionheart Wed, 01 Jul 2009 15:29:22 +0000 http://www.thingsontop.com/?p=768#comment-1261 It seems to me the author thinks that the very basic and old fashioned DOS command interpreter is the pinnacle of command lines! When I don't remember an exact command I just hit tab and it lists completions. If I don't know the options I press ALT-F2 man commandname ENTER and it gives me a prettily formatted help file. And no I don't use DOS obviously! Its like someone writing about something being a bit like a bicycle when he only has experience of a kids scooter. It seems to me the author thinks that the very basic and old fashioned DOS command interpreter is the pinnacle of command lines! When I don’t remember an exact command I just hit tab and it lists completions. If I don’t know the options I press ALT-F2 man commandname ENTER and it gives me a prettily formatted help file. And no I don’t use DOS obviously! Its like someone writing about something being a bit like a bicycle when he only has experience of a kids scooter.

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