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Re: [LUG] Whats so "dirty" about command line was: Hasta la Vista

 

Tom Brough wrote:
> 
> Whats so "dirty" about the command line ? You make using the command 
> line sound like breaking the 11th commandment "THOUST  SHALT NOT USE THE 
> COMMAND LINE!" 

It is fine if you've invested the time to learn to use it, which takes
about a week of learning (30 to 35 hours) for Mr/Mrs average. That is
rather more than most people need to learn to drive a car, which is far
more useful than bash shell (unless you work in IT).

Otherwise it breaks the rules about placing unnecessary "know-how" in
the way of the user, if they NEED to use the command line. Heck I've
used Bourne, Korn, Bash, and several others whose names escape me since
University and I still have to look up stuff in the bash manual when
doing more complex stuff.

Take for example "broadband routers" for ADSL lines, which is my topical
example of poor design, and unneeded know-how in the way.

They have several configuration settings; "username", "password", and a
couple of settings to describe the type of ADSL line.

All BT residential ADSL lines are identical in terms of the technical
settings (AFAIK), so good vendors could set these before distribution to
the UK (NetGear do!). Sure they'll be odd cases, but the defaults could
be right.

Similarly the username/password could be made redundant by either
setting it at the ISP, or (more sensibly) revising the standard so that
the line identifier would connect you to the ISP of your choice, and the
username and password would not be required to be set (BT happily ignore
the password for BT speedtests).

Thus with one or two minor changes to the way things are generally done,
one could plug the ADSL router into the wall (I'll ignore microfilters
for the moment), and it would "just work" (since they pretty much all
ship with DHCP enabled for a network in 192.168/16), in that one would
plug a PC into the router using a Cat5 (or better) cable, the PC would
have default DHCP settings (all major OSes do that as a default
already), and it would get sensible DNS, routing, and ideally NTP (and
maybe other) settings from the router.

Currently most people have to work through a manual, find the admin
password in the documentation, set the username and password for the
PPPoe connection (using a browser or software, many users don't know
what a "browser" is, and know they don't want to install more software
from yet another company), and in many (most?) cases change a few
parameters they know nothing about to what it says in the section of the
manual for the UK.

Not saying we need to take the admin interface away from ADSL routers
(no that would make it useless if you left the UK), just saying there is
no reason, apart from poor design and planning, that the ordinary user
should be exposed to it for the common case.

Similar comments apply to bash, and almost everything else in computing.




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