I seem to recall back in the 90s or 2000s some research with CLIs vs GUIs with older adults that showed, counterintuitively, that they could handle the CLI much easier because it wasn't full of distracting things (lots of icons, etc). They could focus on a single task. >
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Replying to @richarddmorey @o_guest and
> Every time I fire up SPSS with its unnecessary windows and a million menu options that aren't organised in any way that makes sense, I think of that research.
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Replying to @richarddmorey @o_guest and
I find "powerful" GUIs confusing and frazzling to be honest. It's a visual maze with no clear path.
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Replying to @owainkenway @richarddmorey and
Same here. I hate thinking the GUI way. As if the actions one can take are set in linear order. Computer programing is in this sense like writing natural language. Imagine doing an essay using a menu and thinking that's normal.
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Replying to @o_guest @owainkenway and
"ok, now highlight the verb 'go', then 'Insert -> Prepositional Phrase -> Direction -> To'; in the new box, type 'store' as the object, and tick the 'add definite article' box. Then highlight the entire sentence, click Format Sentence Type from the ribbon, choose 'Question'..."
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Replying to @richarddmorey @o_guest and
Perhaps the appeal is that all of those words on the menus are normal English words. I think there may have been a reaction to CLIs, especially Unix-style ones (ls, chmod, etc), as requiring you to "memorise a lot of jargon", "speak like a geek", etc.
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Replying to @sTeamTraen @richarddmorey and
That reminds me of when my kids learned judo. The names of the moves are inherently unambiguous to a non-Japanese speaker, but as far as I can tell they are fairly dull phrases in Japanese. Maybe "obscure" jargon is in fact easier to learn. Do we need a cognitive linguist here?
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Replying to @sTeamTraen @richarddmorey and
In defence of GUIs, though, I suspect they may fit better in truly event-driven programming worlds. CLIs tend to come from the tradition of "execution starts at the top, falls slowly through to the bottom with maybe some loops on the way" (like scripting).
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Replying to @sTeamTraen @richarddmorey and
Lots of research available on interfaces and user experience (UX). See eg https://www.nngroup.com/reports/ One tradeoff is between learnability and efficieny. GUIs are easier to learn but less efficient (it takes more steps to get what you want). For a novice user, GUIs are great. >>pic.twitter.com/P0rkmzZN33
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Replying to @PieterHog @sTeamTraen and
>> Both a GUI and a terminal are means to interact with the program, they are not related to how the program works, afaik.
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GUIs are great when they are appropriate. When teaching somebody to code, I have different opinions.
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