On Thu, Jul 07, 2005 at 01:17:18PM -0400, Stephen R Laniel wrote : > On Thu, Jul 07, 2005 at 05:02:13PM +0200, Brice Méalier wrote: > > There something that you can try to do instead of double-clicking on > > item (this way you'll also experience the user-friendliness of linux): > > open a terminal (gnome-terminal or Konsole under KDE (yeah this ugly > > command line)) and type 'fire' and hit twice the TAB key, that will give > > you every command beginning with fire including firefox! If the command > > needs some more argument, it will tell it to you! so according to these > > messages, you'll be able to see what went wrong! > > I'd say that we should just keep new users away from the > command line. I do all my work there, but it ceased to be > the best way for new users to interact with a computer about > 15 years ago. The problem with the command line (just to
because win started to get market share at that time and gave users bad habits.... > resurrect a horse long enough to flail it) is that it > doesn't tell you what your options are. In a GUI, you have > menus that list the full extent of what's available to you. > The command line has the full expressive power of language, > with all the complexities that that entails. Sometimes -- > often -- limiting choice makes things more usable. (Ask a > recent immigrant about his or her first time in an American > grocery store, for an idea.) > > You come to the command line, for instance, and you ask > yourself 'How do I launch my web browser?' How will you know > even that your web browser starts with 'fire'? > Tab-completion only works if you know what the filename is. > generally, the name of the program matches the name of the binary! the best example is what you are telling above with firefox... also I think that new users do not have to use intensively the command line but they should be aware that this command line is a way far from being not interactive and in a majority of cases will give them important information! BTW that remembers me the first (and lone) time I tried to convert a pascal program to c using the program "p2c", I was definitively a newbie and tried to do it by double-clicking... I would have succeed if I would have been aware of the command line. My remarks were just intended to make him aware of that. > The better approach for new users is to have a menu like > GNOME's: Applications -> Internet -> Firefox. Though I think > Firefox should be labeled 'Firefox web browser,' but they're > on their way. > > > Well ok! but don't look to much at this! after some reading on the unix > > filesystems you will understand that you can't not do such equivalent > > between unix and win (I don't blame someone here). So take it for half > > right for now, you'll understand that with some practice. > > Mmm ... give me an example of an executable file that > > a) most new users would encounter and > b) is *not* in /bin, /sbin, /usr/bin, or /usr/sbin. > > Granted, sometimes apps are in ~/bin, but new users will not > encounter that. The odds are overwhelming that any app you > want will be in one of the four directories that I listed. > I agree with you! I just wanted to pointed that in comparison to win the filesystems is organized! and so a comparison of /usr/bin to c:\Program Files seems to be not 100% relevant! Please don't feel blame by my comments, this is not my goal! I just want to give some tips to a new user and not to tell him that what you say is wrong. Best regards -- Brice Méalier [EMAIL PROTECTED] Linux user nb. 372699 Debian Sarge -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
