🚀 go-pugleaf

"<your-fullname>" <\<your-userid\>@anderson.ucla.edu> wrote:
>But if Apple were to incorporate a CLI into Mac OS it would:
>
>Support (In a Way) the DOS world
>Be hypocritical
>
>Apple made the Mac OS to be easy to use; to "Empower the individual", 
>which is something CLI has not been associated with. UNIX on the 
>otherhand... I dunno
>

C'mon, people, it's not like CLIs are evil, or that they necessarily represent
a DOS mentality.  Personally, I work on both CLI- and GUI-based systems, and
both have their strengths and weaknesses.  It would be nice to have a command
line option when I have to do something that isn't easily represented as a
single, iconized (or menu-ized) task (not that it comes up that often).

What we have to remember is that novice users don't stay novice users.  Once
they become proficient, the interface (be it GUI or CLI) has to allow them to
perform tasks in ways they feel comfortable.  For instance, a new user on a Mac
does *everything* by mouse.  Then, after a while, they learn to use the return
key to hit default buttons.  A little later, they start using command-key
equivalents for opening, printing, or saving files.  After enough time has
passed, they are navigating the Finder exclusively from the keyboard, only
using the mouse for mouse-specific tasks.  

Eventually, some advanced users do find that they want to do something that
can't be easily done by mouse and menu.  Any example I come up with now would
be arbitrary, but let's say we want to make multiple aliases of a document and
put each alias in a different folder.  Do we have to hit command-D five times,
and then drag each alias to its new folder?  Or can we set up a command line to
do something like

    for f in $folderlist do makealias doc $f:docalias

Not having had the free time to play with AppleScript, I can't say this is
impossible under the Mac's current environment, but I will say that to me, this
would be a good thing to have.  I don't intend to rely on it, but having the
tool available would be nice.

If AppleScript can do what some in this newsgroup have claimed, then it would
be a nice middle ground between GUI and CLI.  

John Bode
john_bode@tracor.com

#include <stddlcm.h> /* standard disclaimer */