I agree. In the CLI I have a blinking cursor. If I press keys I see characters. If I press enter I get a response[0]. I do need a further invocation to get help, but that's easy enough.
[0] admittedly a holdover from the typewriter, but even presented only a keyboard and a screen I've had a kid realize that one special key makes the words go vertically instead of horizontally.
Re:CLI user experience case study
by funcDropShadow on Tuesday January 16, 2024 @02:51AM
(#39010617)
There is no reason why a better shell couldn't show tool tips over command names or flags, assuming there is support for it in a terminal emulator. Even without support from the tooltip it would be possible to show some info about the thing below the text or mouse cursor in a designated area of the cli.
Hi, I've never used a computer before and my first time will be a CLI. What is a man page? How would I discover what it is without first knowing it exists?
I believe this is a wrong assumption. People have to learn the basics even to use a GUI. Because they grow up with GUIs does not mean they have not learned they way around them.
And how does one discover the “man page”?
In most GUI applications I can at least find the word “help” of I look around.
I kindly disagree :-): I would say that with the CLI you have the exact equivalent: man pages.
Just like for a GUI you have to know that by hovering the cursor about an icon you will get some text description, with a CLI you have to know that there are man pages. And just like a bad GUI may have cryptic icons without any description text, a bad CLI will have no manpage. But we should compare a good GUI to a good CLI, to be fair.