Re: In The Beginning Was The Command Line
Unqualified code-monkey Garote submits his
annotated version of Neal Stephenson's "In The Beginning Was The Command Line", updated to discuss
UI design theory and fill in some of the gaps from the last five years. (And yes, he has been
granted permission from Neal to do this.) There's
plenty more to cover of course: Will the command-line last only as long as the keyboard? How will
desktop search technology change our
workflow? What about the
3D interface? Scroll to any random paragraph in the essay and you'll find something worth expounding on. What's ahead for the next five years?
Metaphor Shear
I think, however, that the lesson of this problem, and where you make more sense than Stephenson, is not that metaphors are bad and we should all work as close to the actual bytes as we can (I say this even as a diehard vim zealot), but instead that metaphors are really hard to do well. Interface design is hard, and frankly is a bit behind where it should be. I think there are a lot of things about modern operating system interfaces which are ass-backwards, but unfortunately that's just because the tasks demand better design, not because the notion of a GUI is an inherent scam.
I apologize for offering my unsolicited comments. Nevertheless, I appreciated your additions.
Re: Metaphor Shear
Thanks for reading, and for the commentary!