Is a command line interface better than a GUI?

[evan@cosocial.ca]

@jamesmarshall I ask hard questions!

[evan@cosocial.ca]

@kzurell hard disagree, my question is more interesting

[evan@cosocial.ca]

@machinaecrire also apples are better than oranges

[evan@cosocial.ca]

@pauamma don't die wondering

[evan@cosocial.ca]

@gwhilts what

[evan@cosocial.ca]

@earth_walker boooooooooooooooo

[sodiboo@gaysex.cloud]

@evan@cosocial.ca No, not in general. But it highly depends on what the application does.

is a keyboard and mouse better than a touchscreen?
for a text editor, yeah! but for a drawing application, I'd rather take the touch screen (or a pen).
for like, a wifi menu? it shouldn't really matter. both work just as well and it's mostly a personal preference.
for a first person shooter? you could argue either way, but don't forget that lots of folks love joypads/controllers.

for a text editor, i'd much rather have a GUI than a CLI (like ed). but a lot of people prefer a TUI (like nano).
for file management, it doesn't really matter. most people know how to use a GUI, lots of them even have a lot of shortcuts and tricks. but nothing beats the inline scripting of a CLI for flexibility (and again, some people swear by a TUI, like ranger).
for a patchbay graph (like crosspipe), I feel like a GUI is infinitely better than a CLI. you could implement the same operations in CLI, but it would not be the same category of application.
for something like ffmpeg? it has a bazillion switches that would be incredibly overwhelming to present in a WYSIWYG-GUI style. it's difficult to make it anything but a CLI. arguably, the CLI sucks too, but at least you can copy paste magic incantations instead of needing to follow a tutorial with twelve screenshots on exactly where to click.

[machinaecrire@mstdn.social]

@evan Ha ha. I should have added at the end of my reply. Didn't want to sound arrogant.

[evan@cosocial.ca]

@machinaecrire lol, ofc, thanks for replying

[evan@cosocial.ca]

@gwhilts ohhhhhhh

[muddle@infosec.exchange]

@evan If you need to build up a complex structure or even some sort of selective batch operation (eg, ripping a DVD you own), it's a lot easier to do these things interactively via a GUI than on a command line.

[me@social.jlamothe.net]

@EdwinG @heliomass @evan Depends on your definition of convenient. With a GUI, I actually have to go over to my computer rather than SSHing in from whatever device I happen to have on hand.

[me@social.jlamothe.net]

@muddle @evan TUI can often be a happy mediun.

[muddle@infosec.exchange]

@me @evan Hmm. This i my first time hearing of such a thing, or such a term, anyway:

Text-based user interface - Wikipedia

(en.wikipedia.org)

Obviously, I've used such things many times.