CLI and GUI (and Unit 3 Configuration)

Recent events have suggested an interesting metaphor to me that parallels CLI vs. GUI. In some ways the CLI and the GUI relationship seems akin to an electronic text file (CLI) versus a graphically designed and professionally published and printed book (GUI).

My husband recently handed me a copy of In The Beginning Was the Command Line, by Neal Stephenson, in paperback format, purchased for $5.95 used on Amazon.com. He got it as a surprise for me. He had seen me traipsing around the house with my 8.5" x 11" printout copy of that text that was too thick to bind or staple easily. I was attempting to read the essay in broken snatches of time a few sheets at a time and trailing sheets of paper everywhere in the process. The stray pages were promptly being snatched up by the baby (and sometimes eaten,) and/ or sat on by the dog, etc. I would then attempt to collect up the increasingly tattered stray sheets. In no time they were an out-of-order, wrinkled, unwieldy mess. The print out itself was from a word doc that I created by pasting Stephenson’s text off the internet because I thought it would save time.

But any saved time or money evaporated quickly. I spent time struggling to select all the text on the website then transferring the text into a word doc and deleting extra paragraph returns. The font had been white on a black background and had to be selected and changed to black. Margins had to be specified and the document needed to be saved, then emailed to work where a working printer lives and printed from the office computer at .10 cents per page. Now I have 10 years of graphic design experience so this did not take a LOT of time but it did take some. There was even some expense, all for the inconvenience of an unbound, unattractive and unformatted manuscript.

What was I thinking? I was so relieved when that paperback showed up! I could turn pages easily without losing my place, bookmark my progress and return to previously read pages easily. I could distinguish it from other course materials at a glance and take it with me in my purse. To me, the end user, these are undeniable advantages, giving me a greater sense of “power” and control over the situation. This is usually how I feel using a GUI as well.

However, this metaphor also helps me to see that the “power” of any interface comes from how well it addresses and fits the need of the user. For my purposes -----I needed a printed copy----the professionally produced paperback served me much better than the electronic text file. But what if my purpose had been different? What if I had wanted to re-design the book, give it a new cover and reformat its text? What if I wanted to give it an un-authorized re-write and change its content? What if I wanted to create a spoof version of the essay? Well, then surely I would need the “power” afforded by the electronic text file which is ready to go as an alterable electronic file with each of its characters already understood by word processing and graphics programs. The paperback would require a lot more “work” to get it into an alterable format; i.e. digital scanning hardware and optical character recognition software would be required to convert the physical book to a raw text file. If the end need of the user is considered first, the comparison of CLI versus GUI becomes less fraught with emotional baggage about who-knows-how-to-do-what and more about the practical way in which each system interfaces with the real world and can or cannot meet user needs in a timely manner. Stephenson's sneering derision towards GUI users is misplaced.

On another note. I am still struggling with Linux and have hours of work ahead of me to re-install Ubuntu. I have successfully moved through most of the tutorials at this point but I will probably need to do them three or four times before I am able to understand what is really happening in the system. As of now I am simply following the well crafted instructions with as much typing care as I can muster at 3am most days...