linux = impossible? (no offense meant!)

Robert Brockway robert-5LEc/6Zm6xCUd8a0hrldnti2O/JbrIOy at public.gmane.org
Sun Nov 9 04:37:21 UTC 2003


On Sat, 8 Nov 2003, Byron Desnoyers Winmill wrote:

> It doesn't matter if the best package manager in the world is easier to
> use than Windows installation programs.  It simply won't fly if it
> doesn't fit people perceptions of how things should be done.  These
> days, people think you obtain a piece of software (either in a store or
> by downloading it) and run an installer.  That will never work under
> Linux because of dependencies.

You really have to try Debian.  That's all I have to say on this topic :)

> Dependency hell won't fade away until developers decide to toss away
> this notion that two, three, four, etc. levels of dependencies are
> acceptable.  If anything, the situation is getting worse ... and I

Or have the distro deal with them properly.  See my earlier comment.

> Baloney.  A GUI need be no more or no less powerful than the command

I really have to take issue with this statement.  As far as my 11 years of
unix use tell me, the CLI is orders or magnitude more versatile &
powerful than the GUI.  You'll need to back this statement up I'm afraid
:)

> line.  If a difference does exist in functionality (and I certainly
> think there is), it is only because most GUIs were designed with less
> functionality to make them easier to use.  Similarly, you can design

I propose a GUI approaching the usefulness of a CLI (none have yet been
created IMHO) would need to be more complex than a CLI because the very
structure of a GUI tries to narrow down a users choices.

My shell might have hundreds of built in functions which are invisible to
me unless I call them.  If I tried to display them all in a GUI, with
their myriad options, I'd either need menus of several screen lengths or
menus imbedded to many levels.  Neither is desirable.

Having said this, all current GUIs are based more or less on the work done
by Xerox in the 70s.  I'm not saying it is impossible for a completely new
design to emerge which will rival the CLI for functionality.  Here I'm
talking about something potentially as different from a GUI as the CLI is,
not a flashy new variation on the same theme.  No sign of such a beast
yet that I can see, and little or no work being done to design such a
beast.

Rob

-- 
Robert Brockway B.Sc. email: robert-5LEc/6Zm6xCUd8a0hrldnti2O/JbrIOy at public.gmane.org, zzbrock at uqconnect.net
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