hi Natalie, > I never said "automated GUIs". CLI options can be presented in a GUI with > documentation available when you click the "?" button for example. There is > no need to dumb anything down, just to be a bit more graphical in the way an > app interact with the user (who may choose to use the CLI but it should be a > choice, not an obligation). In some instances, a GUI could also say "for > such and such options, use the CLI". Like it or not, users are getting used > to touch screens and such, so having to type in text (or copy and paste > text) seems a bit unfriendly to them. GUI is only about presentation and > interaction, it's not about anything automated, it's not about content.
you are correct, of course, saying that GUIs are not about automation, and I take your point about the current trends (ie touch screen usage and little need to type). there's nothing wrong with making it easy for average user to "type a report, email their family, print a picture, record their music, make funny pictures using Photoshop, keep track of their accounts with a spreadsheet etc", all I'm saying is that there's more to keeping a computer running (ie admin) and point'n'click tends to get in the way for many of those tasks (not least because it encourages 'ignorance' (if that isn't too strong a word) which is a hinderance when having to deal with malware/rootkits/etc). (don't get me wrong, that 'ignorance' allows many of us to earn a good living. ;)) Andrew R Paterson (2 November 2010 20:33) thanks for the reminder re history, easy to forget. Sean Gibbins (2 November 2010 18:20) "why does Linux need to change beyond the continuous improvement we already see? I'll qualify that further by asking anyone answering it to step back from this release or that particular release and ponder it over, say, the last five years and several distributions." yes, there have been big changes (udev/HAL, FUSE, etc) and, on the whole, they've been worth it IMO. I'd suggest that one area where we would benefit from improvements is better integration with Windoze, particularly the MS Exchange/Outlook combo (as mentioned earlier, though that's obviously not Linux kernel territory). -- regards, jr. time flies like an arrow, fruit flies like a banana. -- Next meeting: Crown Hotel, Blandford Forum, Tuesday 2010-11-02 20:00 Meets, Mailing list, IRC, LinkedIn, ... http://dorset.lug.org.uk/ How to Report Bugs Effectively: http://goo.gl/4Xue
