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List:       debian-user
Subject:    Re: To the Debian Project, IMHO
From:       Havoc Pennington <rhp () zirx ! pair ! com>
Date:       1999-09-14 0:31:27
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Hi,

As someone who's written lots of code toward making free Unices easier to
use, let me just say that I think this supposed conflict between power and
ease of use is total nonsense.

Even if a tool is for power users, it can be pleasant for those users to
learn and use or it can have an atrocious interface from hell. "Atrocious
interface from hell" does not equate to "powerful," just "annoying."

For example, look at "info" or "dselect" - regardless of whether you
personally like them, the many people that _don't_ like them don't like
them because the keystrokes are really stupid and the general
"flow" through the programs doesn't make sense. However, this has _zero_
to do with the power of the tools.

On a programming level, command-line tools are often written in such a way
that adding a GUI frontend is difficult and requires changes to the
command-line stuff. But this is not a fundamental conflict, just poor
planning when writing the command line tool.

Co-existence is very possible, and taking a position on one side or the
other is just pointless.

Havoc





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