As someone who read at least 2/3 of the DOS 6 manual when it came out, and have used a variety of Linux flavors as well, a command prompt is the least helpful interface devised. What do you type there? How do you let the computer know when you’re done typing? If the answers seem obvious to you, think about why, and what on the screen would point you that way if you hadn’t had training. People are very visual, in general, and a simple interface such as a mouse that directs focus and has a minimal amount of interaction options is far easier to get started with, especially if the GUI has culturally intuitive icons (save needs updating).
I don’t think the power of the command line, or text interfaces in general, can be overstated, but even the most helpful text interfaces, such as those found in some IDEs, require prior knowledge to be useful. This isn’t going to work for the majority of people.
If you think GUI is intuitive you have never worked in support and despaired at people trying their best to get “simple” concepts like “left-click” vs. “right-click” wrong.
It is literally easier to explain to them how to do something on the command line than in a GUI, both in documentation and over the phone. That doesn’t mean they will ever discover how to do something in either interface on their own but I don’t really expect that from the people who make paper notes of the step-by-step process in GUI workflows anyway.
At least there’s only a single way to tell the computer “ok, execute this command”. And you see the command written in plain text before you.
And, no, no useful interface is intuitive because computers just have too many functions. There’s no intuitive appliance in the world with more than a temperature knob and a timer knob. Knowledge is always required, be that cultural or by RTFM.
As someone who read at least 2/3 of the DOS 6 manual when it came out, and have used a variety of Linux flavors as well, a command prompt is the least helpful interface devised. What do you type there? How do you let the computer know when you’re done typing? If the answers seem obvious to you, think about why, and what on the screen would point you that way if you hadn’t had training. People are very visual, in general, and a simple interface such as a mouse that directs focus and has a minimal amount of interaction options is far easier to get started with, especially if the GUI has culturally intuitive icons (save needs updating).
I don’t think the power of the command line, or text interfaces in general, can be overstated, but even the most helpful text interfaces, such as those found in some IDEs, require prior knowledge to be useful. This isn’t going to work for the majority of people.
If you think GUI is intuitive you have never worked in support and despaired at people trying their best to get “simple” concepts like “left-click” vs. “right-click” wrong.
Oh, I have. Now imagine giving those people a command line.
It is literally easier to explain to them how to do something on the command line than in a GUI, both in documentation and over the phone. That doesn’t mean they will ever discover how to do something in either interface on their own but I don’t really expect that from the people who make paper notes of the step-by-step process in GUI workflows anyway.
At least there’s only a single way to tell the computer “ok, execute this command”. And you see the command written in plain text before you.
And, no, no useful interface is intuitive because computers just have too many functions. There’s no intuitive appliance in the world with more than a temperature knob and a timer knob. Knowledge is always required, be that cultural or by RTFM.