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The 2000 Beanies

Vote:Best Designed Interface in a Non-Graphical Application 17

Posted by emmett from the vote-now dept.
Another 2000 bucks is on the table, and you get to decide who gets it. The nominees for 'Best Designed Interface in a Non-Graphical Application' are Pine, Lynx, Mutt, Emacs and Midnight Commander. Go vote to see who gets the money.
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Vote:Best Designed Interface in a Non-Graphical Application

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  • I agree completely, neither vi nor emacs has a very intuitive interface. But I would argue that both have very efficient interfaces for experienced users. Yes, the learning curve is steeper. But once you have made it a good way up the curve, you can get things done much, much faster than you could in any more "intuitive" interface.

    I have nothing against easy-to-learn applications, they should exist for people who prefer them, but "expert" level interfaces like vi and emacs can't be beat for getting complex tasks done very quickly.
  • Nah, Mutt is the best text interface... or maybe vim. But definately not Pine.
  • Interfaces don't need to be intuitive to be good. vi has a splendid interface. The average unix shell has spectacular interface. Sure you're never going to see an book about either in the "Interfaces for Idiots" series. Comparatively, you'll also never see an interface (GUI or non-) that has a easy learning curve for the beginner that doesn't become unnecessarily complex and unweildy for the power user.
  • Yes. However, this doesn't deserve an award. The GUI was developed by Symantec in the early 90's. They had a product for DOS named Norton Commander and MC is a clone of NC... get it. :)

    Anyway. If anyone deserves the award it is an Engineer at Symantec.

    Kevin
  • how could they forget NetHack? Yea Gods.
  • For what Emacs is, and the ways it can and is used, its just the best. The learning curve is steeper, but its designed to be efficient, not intuitive, especially after using it for 15 years since I had "MEmacs" on the Amiga, its very efficient. (offtopic:) Anyone know of a win32 port?
  • I agree completely, Thats why I voted Emacs, hell, if we judge the interface by how intuitive it is at the newbie edge of the curve, then Progman.exe or Explorer.exe (tm)(tm) would win.
  • Midnight Commander (type mc to start it) is definitely the best non graphical interface. It's the only one that I know of in Linux where you can use the mouse (with gpm running) in the console under Linux to make selections (i.e. click on options) rather than just select text.

    When I started with Linux [linux.org] in 1995 I was really impressed with its interface and nothing on the console has bettered it.

    As for Emacs, you have to be joking. I like Emacs as an editor but the interface has a lot to be desired, you can't call it intuitive.

    Pine's interface is easy to use but not as good as the Midnight Commander.
    --

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