Re: Ease of Use?

[D-Man <dsh8290 rit edu>]

I would like to add to this discussion.  I enjoy using GUIs because, as Karl
said, they provide a way to use a program without being taught anything.  Graphics
are also nice to look at and interactions between programs is sometimes easier
with a mouse.  On the other hand, I have learned to use the CL (namely bash) and
I have found it to be quick and powerful.  

A little background on my computer experience:  I first learned MS-DOS 3.3 on
an i286 in 7th grade.  While I was in 8th grade my dad upgraded to an i486 with
Windows 3.1.  In 1995, my dad purchased Windows 95.  I had not much education in
using the CL at that time, and I have since learned that MS-DOS is a weak and
crippled CL.  My freshman year in college I was introduced to Unix (Solaris
running on Sun Ultra 1's).  I have learned how to use a powerful CL and a stable OS
(;-)) and rather enjoyed it.  I installed Linux on my own PC and that's about
where I am now, in my 3rd year of college (I am studying Software Engineering, BTW).


I think that both GUI's and CLI's have their merits and that both should be
provided, as Karl suggested.  However, careful design of both is necessary.  The
Evolution GUI seems to me to be following the StarOffice philosophy: "Do
everything in one place."  That is why I hated the StarOffice UI so much.  It also goes
completely opposite the Unix philosophy of "Do one thing and do it well."  

As far as email clients go, I think Balsa has a rather nice and simple GUI. 
Sometimes, however, I don't have access to a graphical terminal (also with my
mailbox settings) so I use elm.  elm is nice because it can be used in a terminal
and has simple commands.

I think that Evolution should be broken apart into the different services it
provides (at least as far as the GUI is concerned).  The calendar and the e-mail
clients are 2 different applications and should be viewed as such.  Karl said
that Evolution was a "app architecture tailored to bring services to a desktop,
like addressbook-server and friends, all indepent of the GUI!"  How is the
architecture independent of the gui?  Could several different GUI's (frontends?) be made
to work with evolution?  If so, I think that is the way to go (with adding a
CLI of course).


On a more developer-oriented note, what is the best way to make an app with
both CLI, GUI, and scripting capabilities?  

I have heard of libguile, though I haven't used it or looked at the API, and I
think that it would be a good way to add scripting to GNOME apps.  Scheme is a
nice, clean language that is not really difficult to learn (much simpler than
C!).

-D