Re: [gtk-list] Re: PROPOSAL: Automatic wrapping of CLIs with GUIs

[Gerald Combs - Unicom Communications <gerald unicom net>]

On Thu, 18 Jun 1998, Kenneth Albanowski wrote:

> Someone was complaining that it's not obvious what switches are needed to
> get `diff` to generate legal `patch` input (which is true), and that a GUI
> would help (which is _not_). The only way to solve this is to make the
> documentation for `diff` (or `patch`) explain what options are needed, or
> add a new "--patch" switch to `diff` (which would certainly be available
> from the GUI). The point being that turning a command line into radio
> buttons, check boxes and file selectors is not going to magically turn a
> command-line app into a GUI wonder. This sort of technique is not very
> like to be able to turn the infozip tools into `winzip`. 

  I agree that layering GUI components on top of command line utilities
doesn't always work well.  An application that comes to mind is AIX's
'smit'.  In case you've never experienced smit (the System Management
Interface Tool) in its full glory, it's a utility that comes with AIX
systems that lets you perform various management tasks using a graphical
(or tty) interface.  In a nutshell, you navigate through a menu until you
find the task you want to perform, enter the appropriate values into a
dialog, and hit "OK".  Smit then pops up a window showing the system
command it's executing.  Although I think IBM's implementation of smit is
horrendous from a human interface standpoint, I also think it's a pretty
good idea.  It provides an (almost) easy to use interface for people
unfamiliar with AIX, but it also shows you the proper command line
interaction for performing administrative tasks.

  I wouldn't mind seeing a help system based on this concept.  Taking the
'diff' example above, suppose I could bring up a smit-like "How do I...?"
application, and navigate to a section on using 'diff' to generate output
for 'patch'.  It could display a dialog asking me for the input and output
files, and show the command line needed.  There could even be an option to
execute the command. 

  I think such an application would address some of the issues discussed
in this thread.  Obscure or little-used command syntax would be in easy
reach, and it would be a nice utility for novice users to lean Unix
commands.

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