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Comment by pjmlp | Hacker News Reader

I love my dependence on the GUI, otherwise would still be stuck using MS-DOS.

Which is neither here, nor there.

It's more like saying "I love my dependence on images, else I would still be stuck using text". Well, text can be more information-dense and efficient than an image or a movie. And similarly, a CLI can be more efficient than a GUI. Depends on the application.

And if the "MS DOS" reference is about release time, well, there are CLI tools that were built far more recently, and are much more modern than many GUI tools people use.

"Slide rules to replace your dependence on calculators"

That analogy doesn't hold well though, because calculators were (at least eventually) better at everything a slide rule could do. This article is predicated on the idea that this doesn't hold for CLI->GUI. You may disagree, but it's not obviously false.

Yes, I caught the drift of the article. I think a better title might have been "Teletype Emulation Strategies to Break Your Dependence on the GUI"

If we are going there, why not "Teletype Emulation Strategies to Break Your Dependence on Limited Desktop Metaphor" ?

Or "airplane seat" metaphor as Frederick P. Brooks, Jr. said.

If MS-DOS had enjoyed as much developer attention as the *nix command line experience has over the past couple of decades, that might not be so bad a prospect.

Couple? You mean 4?

'Couple' is a word that in some contexts means two specifically, but in other (informal) contexts means a small number. Generally when somebody describes three or four things as a "couple", they're being informal and a correction isn't warranted.

”but in other (informal) contexts means a small number"

Isn't there a word for that ? I'm thinking of "several". That is what I learned in school (not a native english speaker )

Both "several" and "couple" are applicable. "A handful" or "some" have the same connotation generally, and I'm sure there are many others.

Except, we actually don't mind, because we have a proper GUI experience and don't need to use the shell for basic stuff.

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