On Sat, 10 Sep 2016 22:31:27 +0000, Ian Stewart wrote:
A few years from now and Computer Science graduates won't have seen a console terminal window let alone typed a command on one. Imagine the complexity of getting a computer science student to understand why they would type "ls -l" at a "$" prompt and then the effort required in trying to make sense of the text that comes back at them on the screen. What's this "drwxrwxr-x" crap? They'll have a lot better things to do than try and understand this archaic cryptic console terminal rubbish.
That has largely already happened. We have had an entire generation--perhaps two entire generations--brought up with the idea that the only way to use a computer is via a GUI, that a CLI is something archaic and unfashionable--even repulsive. But remember what a computer is good for: it is good for doing tedious, repetitive tasks that humans are lousy at. But the only way to automate such tasks is via commands and scripts. A GUI only lets you perform those tasks that were programmed into the GUI; it doesn’t provide ways to synthesize those built-in primitive tasks into more complex sequences. Instead, it is the human that has to manually perform those sequences, over and over. In short, a CLI puts the human in charge of the computer. A GUI is a great way to put computers in charge of humans.