David C. Kerber wrote: > One possibility would be to do something similar to what Cisco does > with the GUI they have for their security appliances:
If ever there was a poster child for the most obnoxiously brain-dead approach to putting a gui on a product, Cisco's tools would be it. That crap nearly makes me homicidal. > a gui that > handles basic setup, when it works... > and issues commands in their standard cli format > to the appliance. when it works... > But the gui is optional, and if you want to use > just the cli because that's what you're familiar with, or to do high > level stuff that can't be done with the gui, that works fine as well. And what is the point of writing a gui then? The Cisco approach creates a usability chasm between basic, primitive functionality and expert use. The newbie->expert transition needs to be a smooth curve, with no cognitive discontinuities. Slapping a gui on top of a command line, in 100% of the cases I have personally experienced, has been a disaster. -dave _______________________________________________ geda-user mailing list [email protected] http://www.seul.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/geda-user
