I don't 100% agree. I've designed lots of guis. And there were times
users discovered a feature I never intended. And I'm not talking about
a bug called a feature. While true that the programmer has a lot to
think about (fortunately I am one), the gui can be designed in such a
way to empower the user. Simply presenting the choices in a list will
speed use by avoiding typing in long paths and the occasional type.
Having a multi-selectable list allows any command ease of application to
many targets with a loop you spoke of. I never have to think of every
possibility the user can enter, just every possibility of a command I
will execute. They are not the same.
You are right where a script is more suitable for a sequence on many
things. My gui will never be able to compete with that. On a single
operation on many things, if the gui can do it, it will win every time.
I can out-click a very fast typer, probably not the fastest.
And if it requires a bazillion mouse clicks, it is a poor design.
John
-----Original Message-----
From: Les Mikesell [mailto:lesmikesell_at_gmail.com]
Sent: Monday, September 10, 2012 4:05 PM
To: John Maher
Cc: David Chapman; Mark Phippard; users_at_subversion.apache.org
Subject: Re: general questions
On Mon, Sep 10, 2012 at 2:31 PM, John Maher <JohnM_at_rotair.com> wrote:
>
> The scripts are a good idea, but I was thinking about a gui for the
client
> side, kinda like Subversion Edge; basically a wrapper for the command
line.
> Even though my first computer didn't have a mouse (or hard drive) the
gui is
> the way to go, typing commands is just not the future.
GUI's require the programmer to anticipate every possible thing you
might want to do and provide an elaborate user interface for it.
Command driven things can generally be combined in useful ways that
weren't initially anticipated. If you need to do some sequence of
operations on your 44 repositories, it will likely be much easier to
put the commands inside a for loop in a script than to do the
bazillion mouse clicks it will take to get to the right places in a
GUI and type them in. Unless, of course, the GUI designer
anticipated exactly that usage and gave you a way to describe it (and
then does the same loop internally...).
--
Les Mikesell
lesmikesell_at_gmail.com
Received on 2012-09-10 22:17:33 CEST