Command Lines: the next UI breakthrough?
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Command Lines: the next UI breakthrough?
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Re: Command Lines: the next UI breakthrough?
#2Interesting. Is there normal version of this article? Without that stupid & useless flash-frame around it?
Re: Command Lines: the next UI breakthrough?
#3Interesting. Is there normal version of this article? Without that stupid & useless flash-frame around it?
You can download the PDF from:
http://www.scribd.com/word/download/48387?extension=pdf
If you download it you can then use Foxit Reader or this online viewer: http://view.samurajdata.se/
Re: Command Lines: the next UI breakthrough?
#4The new command line is closer to a textual representation of the GUI: it rewards imprecision and ignorance, and trades intuitive correctness 95% of the time for impossible obscurity the other 5% of the time.
And it's verbose: "List all the files in my current directory that in in '.txt'" isn't nearly as nice as "ls \.txt". Do we really need ad-supported fluff from Google, Yahoo, and Microsoft, when we still have bash?
Re: Command Lines: the next UI breakthrough?
#5The new command line is closer to a textual representation of the GUI: it rewards imprecision and ignorance, and trades intuitive correctness 95% of the time for impossible obscurity the other 5% of the time. And it's verbose: "List all the files in my current directory that in in '.txt'" isn't nearly as nice as "ls \ .txt". Do we really need ad-supported fluff from Google, Yahoo, and Microsoft, when we still have ba…
But... What if the command line interpreter gets smarter and understands concepts within your query. "Find all articles last week that mentioned Ycombinator" for example.
Machine conceptual awareness will be a big thing on the internet, but it is a HARD problem. We will then enter the world of Find engines instead of search engines.
Re: Command Lines: the next UI breakthrough?
#6A couple of years ago my mom, who is not very computer literate at all, asked me "why can't someone just invent a computer where you type in what program to run instead of hunting for menus and little pictures all the time?"
There was a movement for several decades that assumed that _everyone_ is visually oriented, but there are many people who are still language oriented. Not everyone likes just picture-books.
Re: Command Lines: the next UI breakthrough?
#7Do many people (outside of geekdom) use the Google commands, though? I use the calculator and units of measure, but generally don't know or bother with the others. My family doesn't know they exist, nor do most of my friends (except a couple who fall into the "geekdom" category).
I'd postulate that it was the adoption of the GUI that let the PC spread into the mainstream. Most people just don't have the patience to look up commands. Periodically, there are nostalgic pronouncements that the command-line will reign supreme again, but mostly this seems to be because the tech pundit population largely overlaps with the comfortable-with-computer-before-they-became-mainstream population.
Re: Command Lines: the next UI breakthrough?
#8Quicksilver is a very successful example of a new variation on the command line paradigm. Lots of the power but without the annoyance and specificity.
Re: Command Lines: the next UI breakthrough?
#9The new command line is closer to a textual representation of the GUI: it rewards imprecision and ignorance, and trades intuitive correctness 95% of the time for impossible obscurity the other 5% of the time. And it's verbose: "List all the files in my current directory that in in '.txt'" isn't nearly as nice as "ls \ .txt". Do we really need ad-supported fluff from Google, Yahoo, and Microsoft, when we still have ba…
But... What if the command line interpreter gets smarter and understands concepts within your query. "Find all articles last week that mentioned Ycombinator" for example. Machine conceptual awareness will be a big thing on the internet, but it is a HARD problem. We will then enter the world of Find engines instead of search engines.
Do you do math that way, too? "Consider a matrix with, like, a lot of elements. Okay? Now flip it around so this one element is where the other element was and the other element is where this other element was, and..."
There's nothing wrong with expressing a vague idea vaguely, but if you're definitely looking for definite information, you should use whatever method gets you exactly what you're after. If you chain together enough 90%-right assumptions, your probability of getting a wrong conclusion approaches 1.
Re: Command Lines: the next UI breakthrough?
#10Earlier quoted context omitted.
But... What if the command line interpreter gets smarter and understands concepts within your query. "Find all articles last week that mentioned Ycombinator" for example. Machine conceptual awareness will be a big thing on the internet, but it is a HARD problem. We will then enter the world of Find engines instead of search engines.
Do you do math that way, too? "Consider a matrix with, like, a lot of elements. Okay? Now flip it around so this one element is where the other element was and the other element is where this other element was, and..." There's nothing wrong with expressing a vague idea vaguely, but if you're definitely looking for definite information, you should use whatever method gets you exactly what you're after. If you chain to…
I guess you're assuming extremely ambiguous english queries, and I'm assuming a good english query similar to my example. With a bad english query, you'll get bad results guaranteed. This is true for both humans trying to understand what you're saying, and for the poor computer trying to determine conceptual context. GIGO
For mathematical formulas and formal queries, the user would need to use formal notation.