In the Beginning Was the Command Line (1999)
Reproducing an ooold comment from elsewhere <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.reddit.com&#x2F;r&#x2F;programming&#x2F;comments&#x2F;hwnm&#x2F;unix_the_hole_hawg&#x2F;ci4x8" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.reddit.com&#x2F;r&#x2F;programming&#x2F;comments&#x2F;hwnm&#x2F;unix_the_...</a> :<p>The real problem with Stevenson&#x27;s account is that the command line is no more the True Reality Behind Appearances than the GUI is; it&#x27;s just another shadow on the cave wall. (<i>Especially</i> on Unix, where the shell is just another user-space program.) Eben Moglen identified the problem with the GUI (as we know it) <a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.cabinetmagazine.org&#x2F;issues&#x2F;1&#x2F;i_moglen_1.php" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.cabinetmagazine.org&#x2F;issues&#x2F;1&#x2F;i_moglen_1.php</a> more precisely:<p>&gt; What I saw in the Xerox PARC technology was the caveman interface, you point and you grunt. A massive winding down, regressing away from language, in order to address the technological nervousness of the user. Users wanted to be infantilized, to return to a pre-linguistic condition in the using of computers, and the Xerox PARC technology`s primary advantage was that it allowed users to address computers in a pre-linguistic way. This was to my mind a terribly socially retrograde thing to do, and I have not changed my mind about that.<p>(Which seems a fairer comment on the Lisa or Macintosh than the [2016 edit: LRC work] at PARC, where they were trying to teach children to program <a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;portal.acm.org&#x2F;citation.cfm?id=155364&amp;dl=ACM&amp;coll=portal" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;portal.acm.org&#x2F;citation.cfm?id=155364&amp;dl=ACM&amp;coll=por...</a> .)<p>In Doug Engelbart&#x27;s words <a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.technologyreview.com&#x2F;read_article.aspx?ch=infotech&amp;sc=&amp;id=11992&amp;pg=4" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.technologyreview.com&#x2F;read_article.aspx?ch=infotec...</a> :<p>&gt; Here&#x27;s the language they&#x27;re proposing: You point to something and grunt.