From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Received: from a.mail.sonic.net ([64.142.16.245]) by speech.braille.uwo.ca with esmtp (Exim 3.36 #1 (Debian)) id 1I32Xb-00073C-00 for ; Tue, 26 Jun 2007 00:20:35 -0400 Received: from Reason (mail.jfcl.com [64.142.52.93]) (authenticated bits=0) by a.mail.sonic.net (8.13.8.Beta0-Sonic/8.13.7) with ESMTP id l5Q4KXOG000625 for ; Mon, 25 Jun 2007 21:20:34 -0700 From: "Deborah Norling" To: "'Speakup is a screen review system for Linux.'" Subject: RE: My perspective on the console Date: Mon, 25 Jun 2007 21:20:33 -0700 Organization: Spare Time Gizmos Message-ID: <007a01c7b7a9$56f3e910$eb01010a@Reason> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Mailer: Microsoft Office Outlook 11 X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V6.00.2900.3138 In-Reply-To: Thread-Index: AcexQBXNvyD8VZu2TaG+Q3oSNIVpdgGaEmew X-BeenThere: speakup@braille.uwo.ca X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.9 Precedence: list Reply-To: debee@jfcl.com, "Speakup is a screen review system for Linux." List-Id: "Speakup is a screen review system for Linux." List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Tue, 26 Jun 2007 04:20:35 -0000 > What I have been thinking for some years now is that what is > needed is better command line based shells with less cryptic > commands built out the more cryptic, with some emphasis on > speech modality, like ability to have the whole interaction in > a buffer that can be navigated forwards and backwards, by > screens or pages at a time, or by many other configurable > means. So yes, I agree, the current command line tools are > super powerful but not easy to use, and much work needs to > be done there. Basically we need something other than bash > as the shell, with different ideas as to how command line > should be interpreted, managed, and configured, and then > better applications to run in such an environment. A lot of the good ideas on designing user-friendly console interfaces are getting lost because today's programmers either work with a gui or they are nerdy enough to cope with the cryptic unix command-line. My husband restores old hardware, the way some people restore ancient cars. I've gotten to play with lots of old operating systems, and many, like Tops20, are a lot less cryptic than unix. To get ideas about how to implement console interfaces in old-fashioned operating systems, you might want to play with the fully accessible simh http://simh.trailing-edge.com Which is a simulator for old hardware. I've run simh on both linux and windows. Using simh I recently installed and played with RSTS/E on a simulated PDP-1170. Very fun and gives you a broader perspective. --Debee