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0 pointsblakeyrat11y ago0 comments

I develop server apps all day. We don't use Unix servers, we use Windows servers. Which is great, because it means I can use C# which is one of the few programming languages available that actually has competent GUI tools.

Your post is misconstruing my point quite a bit. I don't want to learn CLI tools. (Why would I, when they're clearly inferior to GUI tools I already have? From my perspective.)

What I want is for developers of programming tools to be more aware of usability issues in their products, and to test their products with a wider audience of users. (It's obvious the authors of Git never thought for even a brief moment about usability or accessibility issues.)

Usability isn't just for mobile apps; all applications should have effort applied to make them as usable as possible to as many different kinds of users as possible.

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MasterTurdle11y ago

These CLI tools are generally developed by and for * nix developers.

These developers generally prefer CLI tools for a bunch of reasons: their power, flexibility and ease of automation, integration and combination, standardized in/outputs, use over SSH and speed.

They prefer making CLI tools for all these reasons, and because it takes much, much less time to write a good CLI tool than to write a good GUI tool.

So, if you prefer hand-holding and mouse-holding, fine, use Microsoft products, they have something for almost everything you could need.

However, you can not expect developers, who work for free, to spend their free time to solve a problem they don't have, for a platform they don't use.

If you want these as GUI tools, why don't you build them yourself? No one is stopping you.

Edit: readability

blakeyratOP10y ago

> These CLI tools are generally developed by and for * nix developers.

Duh, I know that. But I'm not a Linux developer, I don't want to be a Linux developer, and I still have to use Git.

> They prefer making CLI tools for all these reasons, and because it takes much, much less time to write a good CLI tool than to write a good GUI tool.

Too lazy to make software properly; gotcha. They wrote about 1/3rd of a good source control program, then just kind of gave up, stopped, and called it "done".

> However, you can not expect developers, who work for free, to spend their free time to solve a problem they don't have, for a platform they don't use.

No; but I'd expect someone to do it. And it would be nice if open source developers actually felt a bit of guilt or remorse over how difficult their products are to use.

> If you want these as GUI tools, why don't you build them yourself? No one is stopping you.

I already have a job. My job is significantly more unpleasant because I have to work with Git. Volunteering my time to work with Git more is not appealing to me.

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