OT: GUI design and "elegance"

[Leefp1 at aol.com]

In a message dated 12/1/2005 12:36:49 PM Eastern Standard Time, 
bill at celestial.com writes:
As Doug Gwyn said, ``GUIs make simple things simple, and complex
things impossible''.  I like them for rarely performed tasks,
and, of course, graphical jobs (e.g. the Gimp), but really prefer
GUIs that are basically front-ends for command line execution.
Ideally they create a log of the commands executed so I can
figure out what's going on behind the scenes.

For fast data entry, I far prefer a clean curses interface, and
am in the process of rewriting our accounting software using
python's ncurses as a front-end to a postgresql database.  This
is replacing a metric tonne of C code on top of Unify's RDBMS.
Though I am days away from Mark's original post and Bill's follow-up,  I 
couldn't help but opine as well.  Someday, I predict, someone will sell a NON-GUI 
interface as the next "latest and greatest"  thing for data entry and really 
efficient, fast computing.

"You say you're not satisfied, you say you want more for your money, step 
right up, tell you what I'm gonna do!  NGI, I tell you, NGI.  Non Gui Interface 
will sweep the nation.  NO, the WORLD.  Think of it, my business friends... 
your employee's hand will never leave the keyboard!  No smiley faces, no twirling 
hour glasses, no cursor tails... just simple, satisfying, easy 
accomplishment.  What use to take hours will now be done in minutes, what use to take 
minutes will now be done in seconds, what use to take seconds... well, you get the 
idea.  It's fast, I tell you, FAST."


-Lee
------------------------------------- 
Lee B. Walker
Walker & Company
5307 Front Royal Drive
Cross Lanes, WV 25313
304-419-0013
leefp1 at aol.com
http://www.walkeronline.com/
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