Graphical User Interfaces suck balls

I used to say “suck ass” but ppl get offended so I’ve made a more/less tasteful switch. The metaphor that a window is a view into your computer sucks balls I’m not sure it ever was a great idea. Perhaps it started the whole “sexy is a feature” paradigm. Who knows.Just take a look back at the evolution of the GUI (according to Microsoft).

Nothing special has happened since 1992. Has everyone who loved the command-line just give up and switch to the GUI? Was there at least a remnant of people who paused and considered “Hey wait, this isn’t much better than the command-line. In fact, it sucks balls”.

I wasn’t born yesterday. I’ve been around since the DOS days. I was there when the whole Windows thing happened. I recall playing around in DOS even though it only had like 5-10 usable commands. Geez. Had I been using *nix command-line prior to Windows I sincerely doubt I would’ve switched to full-time GUI usage. Or would I? Then came spreadsheets, calendaring, solitaire, minesweeper and other graphical tools that just couldn’t work as effectively from the command-line.

Some have attempted tho’ and sure they were “cute” but could “edit” begin to compare with “Word?”. Nope. So my argument and observation is that the command-line was fantastic for some things and sucky at others. The exact opposite is true for the GUI. This post sums it up with more compelling logic than I ever could And that “prototype” application, I believe, is what we know today as ubiquity.

Ubiquity is fantastic. Amazing. But its just not where I want it to be. It should be at my finger tips regardless of which application in use. Always. Okay okay, well pointed out, we already have quicksilver but at its roots you have to admit that it’s more of a “search solution” than a “linguistic command-line”

Driven by the need for better productivity and efficiency (oh dear i sound like tony robbins), I’ve been searching for that happy medium between the GUI and command-line. As a PHP developer I’m torn between the power, raw speed and reliability of VIM (it never crashes) over a bloated resource-guzzling application like Zend Studio for Eclipse.

VIM is arguably the fastest most powerful editor available but it doesn’t do auto-completion on libraries in your project include path. Crap. It doesn’t even do “projects”. I’ve hit critical mass attempting to use multiple tabs and split windows with VIM but there’s only so much one can do before you admit you need a GUI. Zend Studio for Eclipse handle “windowing” significantly better. It gives you much control over the IDE’s layout. Its fantastic really. I wish more apps would give you complete control over its layout of toolbars and views. Mozilla, if you’re listening I want to be able to pull the bookmarks and history sidebar to the right damnit NOT the left!!!

What then is the happy go-between OR compromise OR mix? This is not a rhetorical question. Somone answer me. Damnit I suppose, until someone at Redmond or the clever guys that work for that fruit company wake up we’re staring thru a window waiting for the next kickass User Interface to walk by. 16 years ago (and counting) Bill and his goofy pals reckoned it was “Windows”.

A matter of time. Word will reach the gods of “kickass user interfaces.” They’ll realize we need a saviour And so until the “chosen one” arrives the people who live in little windows will continue their bane existence. Dragging and dropping. Right-clicking. Copying and Pasting. Woops. Right-click. Undo “Yes i’m sure (for the nth time)”. And finally *click*… your computing is shutting down. zzZZzZZ

I should write children’s books. Nah that would suck balls. Oh god of our salvation the signs of our frustration are here: quicksilver, ubiquity, microsoft powershell

I’ve gotten rid of Zend Studio btw and opted for a leaner Eclipse PDT. Its a bit more stable, quicker and also has a “built-in quicksilver” [kbd shortcut is cmd+3 on mac os x]. For some reason Zend Studio for Eclipse sucks balls on Mac OS X Leopard. Too slow-w-w-w I still have terminals close by for a shell into *nix machines and mysql cli clients. I also find it bloddy handy to setup site-specific browsers for php, zend framework and mysql docs using fluidapp. In that way they’re easily launchable via quicksilver