A good example of Ben's point might be M$ Access. It offers a pretty series
of boxes you can connect w/ lines to choose items out of column A to match
with column B while avoiding column C, etc etc. When you're all done it
creates an ugly SQL statement behind the scenes to do the work. Although
something like Access could help someone learn SQL ("oh, I see how that
works..."), most users couldn't care less about the SQL statements
themselves. Likewise with any HTML GUI. Many users probably started with
them by saying "I can use this to help learn HTML" but, if you have a GUI
doing the work most people will not bother to look under the hood. And the
people who actually want to lean SQL or HTML, for instance, should *never*
use the results of GUIs as an example (I remember the first time I saw
FrontPage use about eighty space characters when a simple two column table
would do the same thing and not care about screen size).
If someone wants to learn sed, awk, SQL, HTML, PERL or almost anything
similar, the best way is to just start small and build your knowledge in
steps. For instance, write an awk script to print the fourth field of every
record. Next, have it compare that field to a constant and only print it if
they are the same. Next, have it compare several fields to different
constants and print a different message based on matching combinations.
Then, replace the constants with variables and have it accept those values
as command line arguments or passed from a script. Just going through an
exercise like this, and learning from your own mistakes (there will be
plenty), will be a lot more informative than any amount of time spent
analyzing a GUI's code. (For anyone who has never played with awk and think
this is an over simplified assignment, give it a try...it can be a real eye
opener).
Remember, "If you give a man a hand out, you take away his will to work"
-Larry
-----Original Message-----
From: Benjamin Scott [SMTP:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]
Sent: Monday, January 29, 2001 10:38 AM
To: Greater NH Linux Users' Group
Subject: Re: Procmail front-end?
On Mon, 29 Jan 2001, Jeffry Smith wrote:
> Some basic tools that would enable them to make simple choices,
AND SHOW
> THEM THE COMMAND LINE EQUIVILENT (i.e. learn by example) would be
> extremely useful.
Maybe I'm just a cynical bastard (okay, no "maybe" about it), but
every time
I've seen such a front-end for anything, I see two groups of people:
Those who
do not want to learn the underlying tool and just want the GUI, and
those who
know that you cannot program a computer by clicking a mouse. (You
can layout
UI forms, but you cannot write code.) The former group inevitably
comes
complaining to the latter group when their front-end fails to be
sufficiently
flexible.
sed and awk text-processing languages. Note the word "text". Now
note the
lack of the word "text" in the term "graphical user interface". See
the
problem?
I might buy a graphic CBT (Computer Based Training) system for sed
and awk,
but a GUI front-end?
--
Ben Scott <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Net Technologies, Inc. <http://www.ntisys.com>
Voice: (800)905-3049 x18 Fax: (978)499-7839
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