[Semi OT] The programming language wars

[CraigDillabaugh via Digitalmars-d]

On Friday, 20 March 2015 at 17:25:54 UTC, H. S. Teoh wrote:
> On Fri, Mar 20, 2015 at 05:04:20PM +0000, ketmar via 
> Digitalmars-d wrote:
>> On Fri, 20 Mar 2015 13:28:45 +0000, Paulo  Pinto wrote:
>> 
>> > Given that I have been an IDE fan since the Amiga days, I 
>> > fully
>> > agree.
>> > 
>> > Every time I am on UNIX I feel like a time travel to the 
>> > days of
>> > yore.
>> 
>> being on non-nix system is a torture. there aren't even gcc, 
>> let alone
>> emacs/vim.
>
> Yeah, I've become so accustomed to the speed of keyboard-based 
> controls
> that every time I use my wife's Windows laptop, I feel so 
> frustrated at
> the rodent dependence and its slowness that I want to throw the 
> thing
> out the window.
>
> But at another level, it's not even about keyboard vs. 
> rodent... it's
> about *scriptability*. It's about abstraction. Typing commands 
> at the
> CLI, while on the surface looks so tedious, actually has a 
> powerful
> advantage:

clip
>
> Ultimately, I think rodent-based UIs will go the way of the 
> dinosaur.

While I may not share you optimism for the future, I do agree the 
CLI is almost always better:o)

One big advantage to CLI stuff is that when you come up against 
some tricky configuration, or rarely used command, you can write 
a little script (with comments) describing how to do it (and WHY 
you did it that way).  Very handy for those tasks that you end up 
doing once every X months, and always forget the details of in 
between.  How do you do that with a GUI? Make a video or open up 
OpenOffice/MS Word and start taking screen shots. Painful stuff.

Same goes for configuration files which beat GUI-based 
configuration hands down.

Having said all that having IDE-like, language aware, 
code-completion and background compilation, and a good debugger 
are a big plus for productivity in many cases.