"Different interfaces are good at different things"

Nick’s piece on the strange longevity of the command line is such a good read. It makes you feel like this method of computing isn’t strange at all, which of course it’s not. Even now. It may seem arcane in today’s GUI-dominated world, but it’s funny how much of my work and play is pulling me back toward the command line. The part that made it click for me when I first started digging into this stuff as a kid was the idea that commands are really building blocks, and that it’s our ability to assemble them in our own ways that makes the system so expressive. It asks more of you up front, but delivers more nuance over time. These days, that’s my jam. What’s old is new again. Here’s what I highlighted: Graphical interfaces are excellent when the work is visual or when seeing the available choices is more useful than memorizing instructions. What is interesting is that the graphical interface did not replace the command line in the same way that graphical word processors replaced most…