Re: Usability of terminals [Re: [Usability] Running gnome-terminal as a desktop background]

[Eric Larson <elarson novell com>]

On Fri, 2005-09-16 at 23:58 +0100, Alan Horkan wrote:
> This is a tangent, I'd rather be thinking about ways to improve the
> graphical applications used by normal users but there are clearly many
> people who want a better terminal and I did start so I suppose we may as
> well discuss it now and get it out of the way for another few years.  (If
> I recall correctly this kind of talk dominated the early incarnations of
> this list.)
> 

One thing to consider is how people learn the command line and how that
impacts things like complicated applications. If you look at something
like photoshop or pro tools, you find a relatively high learning curve
to becoming proficient. Examining how and why people use the command
line in order to gain better insight into how they may be able to learn
the complexities of using GNOME. I personally have a theory that showing
users the possibilities of an app go a long way in making the user spend
time learning it. This is not obvious in the command line right away,
but for anyone learning *nix they quickly read all about it on the
Internet. The next thing you know they have learned to use the CLI
because they saw the potential. I think in the same way, people use
photoshop or pro tools in the same way. They see the potential of
creating a work of art or musical masterpiece and learn the app. Now I
know I am going off on a tangent, but I think that pushing users to
learn an application goes a long way in making it easier to use. After
all, if I know how to use the application then it should be easier to
use it! 

A good example is in Inkscape, where the key combination to show the
different dialogs is in the title bar. I for one have been very grateful
for this because it has helped me learn to use it more efficiently. Just
thinking aloud.

Eric


> On Fri, 16 Sep 2005, Phil Bull wrote:
> 
> > Date: Fri, 16 Sep 2005 22:10:32 +0100
> > From: Phil Bull <philbull gmail com>
> > To: usability gnome org
> > Subject: [Usability] Running gnome-terminal as a desktop background
> >
> > On Fri, 2005-09-16 at 03:39 +0100, Alan Horkan wrote:
> >
> > > I think we have serious problems if a user feels the need to resort to
> > > the
> > > command line on a regular basis.
> >
> > True. A lot of users don't know what a command line is, let alone how to
> > use one.
> >
> > > I firmly believe a Desktop has failed if
> > > you need to use the command line for ordinary use.
> >
> > Command lines are very powerful interfaces, and can be used to achieve
> > many tasks simply, quickly and efficiently. For ordinary use, command
> > lines could offer a lot of benefits to a user.
> 
> How come Gnome terminal doesn't have that feature warning you if you
> mispell a command?  Played aroudn with a Mac and as terminals go I thought
> it was pretty impressive way to improve usability.
> 
> > The problem is not that command lines are an inherently inferior way of
> > interacting with a computer 'in ordinary use', it's that currently they
> > aren't easy enough to use for a lot of people!
> 
> > A nice, simple, easy to use CLI, with a more natural syntax and more
> > hinting would be ideal. I'd much rather type:
> >
> > get new mail
> 
> The original designers of unix have admitted they did go overboard on the
> abbreviations.
> 
> You could probably setup aliases for that.
> 
> I think taking it further might alienate the very user who actually like
> using a terminal.  Apparently there is already an "adventure shell" which
> understands a syntax more like that seen in old adventure games.
> 
> > The closest thing we have to this at the moment is GNOME Command
> > Interface, which to me looks very promising:
> >
> > http://www.stanford.edu/~dramage/gci/
> 
> Interesting.
> 
> > Equally, I think it should be possible to do many things without a
> > graphical interface. Of course some things will always need a graphical
> > UI, but for accessibility reasons it's always nice to have the keyboard
> > there as a backup.
> 
> Well to a certain extent a curses interface is a graphical user interface
> too.  Pine for example is a lot easier to use because it has a
> command/menu bar which reduces the memory burden as opposed to mutt which
> is powerful but not very user friendly.  Command line applications benefit
> from having consitent arguements but many dont.  Many of the
> usability lessons of the desktop and Graphical User Interfaces apply just
> as much to command line interfaces only the audience is less demanding and
> willing to work and learn if they believe it will save them work in the
> long term, and they also tend to use computers often enough to be able to
> memorise a large collection of commands.  (Apropos is one of the
> greatest commadn line applications ever.)
> 
> - Alan
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