Re: A Few Ideas

[Quantum Seep <qseep technojunkie com>]

On Fri, 18 Sep 1998, Tim Moore wrote:

> I didn't mean to argue that we shouldn't make a graphical way to do this
> (in fact, in a seperate message, I proposed two!). In fact, I meant to
> disclaim my original message with that point, but forgot to do so before
> sending it. My only point was that we should be aiming our sysadmin tools
> towards power users who like graphical interfaces, not towards newbies. I
> think linuxconf is doing a good job at making a great sysadmin tool. I
> hope that it can be generalized to cross-platform-gnomeconf.
> 
> I'm all for powerful graphical interfaces.

You're right.  I apologize for labeling you with an attitude which was
really just my general perception of a particular group of users.

> > Frankly, I think GUIs today don't nearly exploit their potential.  Shells
> > have evolved to do some pretty powerful things.  The UNIX philosophy says
> > each tool should "do one thing, and do it well."  Then, using powerful
> > synthesis mechanisms such as shell control constructs, pipes, and
> > environment variables, these tools can be combined to do whatever you want. 
> > I think the GUI could do the same thing, if we want it to.  Drag-n-drop is
> > one way.  It's a start.
> 
> Absolutely. I think the more powerful step is Baboon, which will allow all
> sorts of powerful component wirings.

Sounds exciting.

> I think NEXTSTEP is the ideal existing model for what we want to do. It
> was powerful, it was buzzword-compliant, it was Unix, but you never had to
> touch a shell to do anything unless you really wanted to (and with the
> great graphic designers they had, who would want to?)

Perhaps so.  Thanks for your careful commentary.

/-------- Quantum Seep, qseep@iname.com ---
  "His funny bone's connected to the M-bone"
   PGP fingerprint: 5B 3B 7B EC AA 5B 4B 7F  65 7D 2A CD 69 11 29 2A