

GUI vs. Command line interface - omnibrain
http://www.softpanorama.org/OFM/gui_vs_command_line.shtml

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err4nt
I use a text-based launcher (Quicksilver, Gnome Do) to launch my apps at the
'speed-of-thoght' by typing a few charatcers of the applications name on my
desktop, why not the web?

I thought: how come we cant control websites and the display of information
using text? Especially on mobile devices, having an input field that could
control multiple display options could eliminate the need for a bulky mobile
menu.

This is what I came up with, it runs simple JavaScript functions as
'commands', giving me at-a-glance access to a few key thingd. The UI is a
cross between a terminal CLI and a tabbed document interface. The command
output is graphical and often interactive, but the output is stacked in a
'log' above the prompt. At any time you may opt to close a previously output
command, or clear the entire history.

HTML, CSS, and JavaScript (no jQuery) and consider it shared under the MIT
license!

[http://staticresource.com/joe.html](http://staticresource.com/joe.html)

I'm hoping it captures the best parts of CLI and GUI. I just learned that
individual pages may request to go into native full-screen mode to the
browser, so one of my next steps is to see if I can enable a fullscreen
'isolation mode' for the output of any command, allowing you a way to exit
that context and go back to the prompt and output log

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jhallenworld
Hmm, well there are many examples of command line+GUI interfaces: Magic, the
old IC layout editor is a CAD program with a command line interface. Another
example is the matlab command line.

One thing I like about the command line is history- you just don't have this
in a GUI. It would be nice if you could display images (cat an image file) or
run little graphical programs right in the terminal emulator window. Scroll
back to see the past.

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bonobo3000
A normal desktop is already a pretty good hybrid GUI/Command Line interface.

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DougMerritt
So we should never talk about possible improvements?

The basic idea of the article is quite reasonable, whether one likes the
particulars or not.

