From: johnsd2@rs6212.ecs.rpi.edu (Daniel Norman Johnson)
Subject: Re: More Defense of CLI
Reply-To: johnsd2@rpi.edu
Organization: Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, NY.
Date: Thu, 1 Oct 1992 06:53:48 GMT

In article <TOMSTER.92Sep30223107@banzai.WPI.EDU>, tomster@banzai.WPI.EDU (Thomas Richard Dibble) writes:
|> In article <ewright.717801217@convex.convex.com> ewright@convex.com (Edward V. Wright) writes:
|> 

[deletia- select del stuff, syntaxt errors :) ]
|> 
|>    If you really believe you could type this, then type in the command
|>    names of all the files you *don't* want to delete without forgetting
|>    any or misspelling any, resulting in files you really wanted being
|>    deleted, you're living in a dream world.
|> 
|> Obviously you have no idea what I am talking about.  The 'select' command
|> brings up a full-screen directory listing (which scrolls up and down).  A
|> 'highlight bar' goes up and down in response to the arrow keys, just as you 
|> would expect.  'Space' toggles a file selected or unselected.  'Enter'
|> submits the list of selected files to the next command.

In which case you are no longer using a CLI. You are using a keyboard
based, textual interface buts its much better than a CLI.

[deletia- icons/extensions]
|> 
|>    >The example *you* gave, however, is more than just slightly caterring to your
|>    >GUI point of view.  How does 'the first four columns' relate to any real
|>    >filing system?
|> 
|>    Some people want to do more with their computers than just play with 
|>    the file system.
|> 
|> Now, is that or is that not a cop-out?
|> It just so happens that all the computers I have ever seen use some sort
|> of file system.  Even on the Mac this is not transparent.  In DOS it
|> is wide open.  Either way, you're going to have to deal with it one way
|> or another.  BTW, that is about *all* you do when working on the CLI.  The
|> only way to escape it is to actually start up an application and do real work
|> (or play).

Yeah, this I agree with. CLIs are so bad you can't do very much
in the way of apps with them. But CLI based file managers persist! :)

|>    >The system 'imposed upon us' by that evil thing DOS by nature has very quick
|>    >short-cuts and casts in it.  
|> 
|>    Quick?  Only because you insist that "the time spent learning a command
|>    doesn't count, only the time spent actually typing it in."  This is like
|>    measuring an astronaut's work days by those he spends in space, ignoring
|>    all the time he spends on the ground *training* to go into space.
|> 
|> I have never misspelled '*.*'.
|> It did not take me long to remember that * == any string of characters, or
|> none, and ? == one character.  the [abc1-3] thing took a little more time,
|> but I use it much less.  As long as your a space buff, think of it as
|> going from here to the Supermarket, where my normal computing takes me to the
|> Moon and back.

In DOS (at least some versions, and I _think_ all) * does not mean "any
string of characters" its means "anything can go after this"; That is:

a*.bla

matches:

a.bla	ab.bla	ac.bla

a*d

matches exactly the same bunch!

*abc.bla

matches anything ending in .bla.

If you aren't aware of this (maybe you were just glossing over it),
it can be a bit of a problem.

[deletia- Pipes, as usual]
[deletia- Flames as usual]


-- 
			- Dan Johnson
And God said "Jeeze, this is dull"... and it *WAS* dull. Genesis 0:0

These opinions have had all identifiying marks removed, and are untraceable.
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