Path: csiph.com!v102.xanadu-bbs.net!xanadu-bbs.net!feeder.erje.net!eu.feeder.erje.net!news-1.dfn.de!news.dfn.de!fu-berlin.de!uni-berlin.de!individual.net!not-for-mail From: Neil Cerutti Newsgroups: comp.lang.python Subject: Re: My son wants me to teach him Python Date: 14 Jun 2013 16:01:44 GMT Organization: Norwich University Lines: 41 Message-ID: References: <637daa98-9a0e-46ab-bb9a-f5638b7c0038@googlegroups.com> <51bab49a$0$29997$c3e8da3$5496439d@news.astraweb.com> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Trace: individual.net kkrfX0numRN1gJf5SZiTwgkAtHGjjXOZ7pDCYshJ1LIj/YXeDM Cancel-Lock: sha1:F6rHndROKRHl18zthqOBcS71IO8= User-Agent: slrn/0.9.9p1/mm/ao (Win32) Xref: csiph.com comp.lang.python:48169 On 2013-06-14, Steven D'Aprano wrote: > On Thu, 13 Jun 2013 20:33:40 -0700, Rick Johnson wrote: > >> On Thursday, June 13, 2013 3:18:57 PM UTC-5, Joshua Landau wrote: >> >>> [...] >>> GUI is boring. I don't give a damn about that. If I had it my way, I'd >>> never write any interfaces again (although designing them is fine). >>> Console interaction is faster to do and it lets me do the stuff I >>> *want* to do quicker. >> >> And are you willing to provide *proof* that the console is faster? Or is >> this merely just your "opinion"? I would be ready and willing to compete >> in a "Pepsi challenge" to disprove your claim if needed. For instance, >> if i want to open a text file on my machine, i merely navigate to the >> file via my file browser interface, using clicks along the way, and then >> the final double click will open the text file using it's default >> program. Are you telling me you can type the address faster (much less >> remember the full path) than i can point and click? > > If you can remember the full path in order to point and click, > then I'm sure Joshua can remember the full path in order to > type. My favorite current challenge for an IDE designer is concatenating text files. This is a one-liner, even with cmd.exe, but I don't even know how to do it in Explorer. I'd have to use X number of text editing sessions. > But in any case, there are certainly strengths and weaknesses > of both GUIs and text interfaces, and one should design > programs around whichever is best for the needs of the program > and the user. The side issue of keyboard shortcuts in GUI interface have built-in stengths and weaknesses. I was going to write something about them earlier, but I got bogged down when I thought of the issue of accessibilty, which overtakes any such discussion. -- Neil Cerutti