preparing for const, final, and invariant

[Aziz K.]

On Sun, 20 May 2007 00:21:40 +0200, bobef <asd at asd.com> wrote:
>> bobef wrote:
>> > Although many geeks won't believe it times are changing
>> > and the console interface has no future.
>>
>> Hmm. That's as smart as saying that typewriters will obsolete the pen.
>>
>> They are both needed. Neither will completely replace the other.
>

Even if every PC had voice recognition, I don't think it would be perfect,  
because even humans often misunderstand what another fellow meant to say.  
Language is pretty complex, and there can be a lot of ambiguity even in  
simple sentences. I wouldn't feel very comfortable about telling my PC to  
delete a certain folder, while it could very well destroy the wrong one.  
Maybe the computer could ask you to confirm the command every time before  
it is executed, or even allow you to edit the command in a pop-up text box  
before execution. I'm not sure though where the added benefit of a  
CPU-intensive voice-recognition program is, whilst it should be more  
effective to directly type the command that is on your mind in the  
console. So I don't think that the console is unnecessary or that it will  
be replaced by anything else anytime soon. It would be better to enhance  
it rather than get rid of it. To my mind the console is absolutely  
indispensible for certain tasks, and it is often much easier to type in a  
series of commands than to accomplish the same with a GUI driven program.  
I don't think the console and the GUI are in conflict, but they very much  
complement each other. When I switched to Linux I really began to  
appreciate how powerful a console can be, that's why I have to cringe  
every time I have to use the Windows abomination of a console :-)