Tips for installing windows and freeBSD both.. anyone??

[Robert Bonomi]

> Date: Thu, 11 Nov 2010 18:19:34 -0700
> From: Chad Perrin <perrin at apotheon.com>
> Subject: Re: Tips for installing windows and freeBSD both.. anyone??
>
> On Tue, Nov 09, 2010 at 06:10:54PM -0800, Rob Farmer wrote:
> > On Tue, Nov 9, 2010 at 16:09, Robert Bonomi <bonomi at mail.r-bonomi.com> wr=
> ote:
> > > An _individual_ application may allow scripting via an internal command=
>  language,
> > > but since it is internal to the app, and *not* part of the GUI, it does=
> n't
> > > 'generalize' (no guarantee that similar capability is present in any ot=
> her app)
> > > *AND* is utterly worthless for 'automating' annything that involves mor=
> e than
> > > the single app.
> >=20
> > The CLI doesn't generalize either. How many ways are there to get
> > input into a program?
>
> You might be surprised by how many different ways of getting data into a
> program can be accomplished with a simple Perl idiom like this:
>
>     while (<>) {
>     }
>
> It gets pretty generalized in a hurry.

> > On the other hand, 99% of GUI apps that handle files have a File >
> > Open dialog that is provided via a toolkit and works the same
> > everywhere.
>
> =2E . . and it is shortly after that point that things get very specific,
> and non-general.

Not to mention the fact that you _cannot_ specify anything _but_ a 'file'
as the source of the data to be handled.  Want to read it from a mag tape?
Can't do it.  Want to read directly from a serial port?  =Can't= do it.  
Want to read directly from the keyboard?  *Can't*  do it.  Want to get the
input directly from another program, _without_ using an intermediate file?
CANT' do it.  The GUI "open" dialog doesn't allow for that kind of flexibility.

In a pure GUI environment, if there =isn't= an _existing_ button/menu-item/
selection-list action for it, you _cannot_ do the operation.  

This is, not incidentally, why _pure_ GUI environments have gone the way of
the dodo bird, except for some fixed-scope production uses.

EVERYBODY _today_ realizes a GUI _alone_ is 'inadequate' for 'general purpose'
use, and proivdes -- at a mnimum, an escape to a command-line, where you can
do 'anything'.  e.g. the MS Windows "run" item on the start menu.