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0 pointsredwall_hp7y ago0 comments

This is how I feel about computing in general. GUIs in general were a mistake. Vim is fucking awesome, and there's no replacing a shell and the myriad CLI utilities you have at your disposal. The computer is there to automate repetitive tasks, not create virtual busywork.

GUIs generally represent the sacrifice of power and automation for approachability by the lowest common denominator.

0 comments

shawnz7y ago

> The computer is there to automate repetitive tasks, not create virtual busywork.

The GUI eliminated the busy work of setting up your environment to make your workflows easy. It instead provides an environment where a wide variety of workflows are easy by default, although maybe not as easy as they could be with specific configuration like setting up customized keybindings, etc.

TeMPOraL7y ago

Easy but time consuming. I.e. not ergonomic. Also point&click UIs tend to sacrifice composability, whereas keyboard-driven interfaces tend to allow to chain operations and modifiers in a way that makes it ergonomically cover much larger space of possible workflows.

shawnz7y ago

> Easy but time consuming

But learning is time consuming, too. Keyboard-driven interfaces can be more efficient but they are not discoverable. Maybe keyboard-driven interfaces make sense for the domain specific tasks that you do every day, but would you want a keyboard-driven interface for every random website you come across?

1 more reply

mruts7y ago

Vim has a GUI (or a UI I guess), but it allows you to input commands. For some reason we think of GUI as mouse based interfaces in which you click around. There’s no reason why this has to be the case.

The most powerful form of computing is having the command line for input but also allowing a UI for the display of information.

Izkata7y ago

Vim has a TUI, not a GUI. Unless you're referring to gvim.

beamatronic7y ago

I have also thought this through to the following logical conclusion: Imagine computer users being fluent in SQL and everyone sharing one giant database.

Let’s check Twitter...

select message, username from TWEETS order by date desc limit 10

Slightly more realistic is the “semantic web” concept.

crooked-v7y ago

The trend of GraphQL in JS-land is helping move a little bit towards this, since it's a strong reason to have row-level user authentication and access control so that queries can live in the frontend.

TeMPOraL7y ago

The problem at this point isn't with technology, it's with companies that try to silo in the data users give them.

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse

0 comments

shawnz7y ago

> The computer is there to automate repetitive tasks, not create virtual busywork.

TeMPOraL7y ago

shawnz7y ago

> Easy but time consuming

1 more reply

mruts7y ago

The most powerful form of computing is having the command line for input but also allowing a UI for the display of information.

Izkata7y ago

Vim has a TUI, not a GUI. Unless you're referring to gvim.

beamatronic7y ago

I have also thought this through to the following logical conclusion: Imagine computer users being fluent in SQL and everyone sharing one giant database.

Let’s check Twitter...

select message, username from TWEETS order by date desc limit 10

Slightly more realistic is the “semantic web” concept.

crooked-v7y ago

TeMPOraL7y ago

The problem at this point isn't with technology, it's with companies that try to silo in the data users give them.

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse