Commentary on file managers vs terminal/command line

[Karl Auer]

On Fri, 2016-12-23 at 20:00 -0500, Kim Briggs wrote:
> I can use a terminal and it is EXTREMELY useful for running scripts I
> have written to batch-process my photos or modify permissions, users,
> or other things on whole directory of files.  It is in no way easier
> to use on a daily basis for sorting and managing numerous file types.
> New users should not be led to believe this.

I think just as Ralf errs on the side of the pro argument, I feel you
err on the side of the cons.

"User friendly" means different things to different people. I think a
better way of comparing CLI to GUI is "horses for courses". For people
with repetitive or large or long-running or complex tasks (and
obvuously tasks on systems without GUIs!), CLI and scripting is the way
to go. For ad hoc or simple or highly-varying tasks (or for people who
don't quite know what they want but they will know it when they see
it), a GUI is better.

CLI is powerful but a little dangerous; it's harder to shoot yourself
in the foot with most GUIs. On the other hand, GUIs can be very
frustrating if what you want doesn't fit with their way of doing
things.

Most new users would naturally start out with GUIs, and if their needs
never go beyond what the GUI provides, they will be happy forever. Some
people will hit the limits of the GUI, and will reach for more powerful
tools. Pretty much the same as carpentry :-)

People should certainly be told about CLI ways, and if their specific
task seems to require a CLI or scripted approach, they should be
encouraged to explore that as well (with the appropriate warnings and
assistance).

Regards, K.

-- 
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Karl Auer (kauer at biplane.com.au)
http://www.biplane.com.au/kauer
http://twitter.com/kauer389

GPG fingerprint: E00D 64ED 9C6A 8605 21E0 0ED0 EE64 2BEE CBCB C38B
Old fingerprint: 3C41 82BE A9E7 99A1 B931 5AE7 7638 0147 2C3C 2AC4