[HLUG] Command Line Witchcraft?

[Sarah Chard]

Richard

I know what you mean - in my limited experience of trying to talk
friends who rarely use their PC through a standard procedure (over the
phone) it can get very confusing - 

But having said that GUI's feel much safer for non command line users
because they are self limiting - you can only do the prescribed actions
and (should) end up with the required result - you don't want to step
outside of the box just go from A to B. Because they are self limiting
there is less to remember and you don't have to understand the process
just press the button and get the result.

As part of my job I often teach circus skills to adults and children
many of whom think (or often have been told they have) they have no
co-ordination or indeed may have co-ordination problems. It's those who
have no fear of failure who are usually the fastest and most persistent
learners but everyone can learn these skills - some people will be
better than others but even people with Dyspraxia can achieve if they
are taught in the right way.

In other words whether you prefer cli vs gui may depend partly on the
'way your brain is wired' but largely on the way you have been taught to
use a computer and if you have had little experience of using cli then
your fear of failure will be the mental block which will stop you even
beginning to learn.

-- 
Kind regards
Sarah Chard
Streetentertainers
t 07778 615384
f 0871 5289024
m sarah at streetentertainers.co.uk


On Tue, 2010-02-23 at 10:47 +0000, Richard Smedley wrote:
> But GUIs are so difficult to navigate ppl through remotely.
> They are self-limiting, and rely on motion/direction, which
> is difficult, rather than words, which are the way we think :)

> 
> ..however I've come to the conclusion that it's not
> simply cli vs gui, it's just the way different ppl's
> brains are wired. I work with words, I understand words,
> but I have real problems with directions: if someone
> says you take a left, then a right, then.... I lose
> track and can't grasp it. If I see a map. no matter
> how great the distance, I grasp the route instantly.
> 
> In speaking to others about it I find I'm not entirely
> an oddball, but in a significant minority (say roughly
> the proportion that vote lib-dem), but I remain
> firmly convinced that most ppl will be happy with
> the cli if introduced to it well :-)
> 
> In the 90s, secretaries at places I worked fiercely
> resisted introduction of GUI OSs!
>