Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!usc!ucla-cs!ucla-ma!pico!barry From: barry@pico.math.ucla.edu (Barry Merriman) Newsgroups: comp.sys.next Subject: Re: UI idea...comments, anyone? Message-ID: <1991Jun3.210917.1157@math.ucla.edu> Date: 3 Jun 91 21:09:17 GMT References: <1991Jun2.203311.19795@fcom.cc.utah.edu> <1991Jun3.035743.28221@math.ucla.edu> <1643@toaster.SFSU.EDU> Sender: news@math.ucla.edu Organization: UCLA Dept. of Math, UCLA Inst. for Fusion and Plasma Research Lines: 53 In article <1643@toaster.SFSU.EDU> eps@cs.SFSU.EDU (Eric P. Scott) writes: >I believe that any attempt to eliminate CLIs is barking up the >wrong tree. I agree totally---I don't want to eliminate the Command-Line-Interface; what I want is a *NeXTStep-based* CLI. This means it would make full use of NeXTStep amenities: * browsers for navigating the directory tree and file specification, * mouse-based editing of command-lines & command history, * icons/drag-and-drop for applying tools to files * ability to ``su'' to another users Workspace, * shell script/CLI 2-way interaction with NeXTStep display >Often, a shell *is* the best tool for the job, and No---a shell is a hole punched *through* the NeXTStep interface, and it doesn't interact properly with the Workspace: *When I su to root in my shell, my Workspace---not even a part of it---su's root; so you suddenly lose all the GUI. *I can't write a shell script based NeXTStep App, take mouse input into a shell script (e.g put up a button box, slider, etc), or do any real communication between CLI and the GUI (all you can do is Launch an App from the CLI). * I can't use all the great GUI file maneuvering methods in my CLI, so I have to do much more typing than I should. I don't see how you can say a shell is the best tool, when it is so decoupled from the primary user interface. >there's a lot to be said for the UNIX "tools" philosophy--build >small modules that do one thing (or a few things) well, I agree---but now the user interface is no longer simply 24 lines of ASCII. It is that and much,much more. The ``tools'' that we build must evolve along with the interface---so they should be allowed to have a graphical as well as ASCII CLI component. What needs to be addressed is how to extend the UNIX type of tools (the analog of a shell scripts) to the NeXTStep environment. As it stand now, you just scrap the GUI whenever you want to do some UNIX stuff. That can't be optimal! -- Barry Merriman UCLA Dept. of Math UCLA Inst. for Fusion and Plasma Research barry@math.ucla.edu (Internet) barry@arnold.math.ucla.edu (NeXTMail)