There is a reason why I prefer text based / commandline / unix interfaces.
"Why?" You may ask?
So I had to update a website – basically changing from '2011' to '2012' – for someone. Once I got in to the file manager (web based) I could find the graphics files to replace, reasonably easily, and upload new ones.
But I needed to update the text of the banner. No .html files, or .inc or anything to edit.
So I went to the "WYSIWYG" editor section of the site. I could edit everything, except that part. And the footer. And the page title. So, I could edit the "articles", but not much else.
After hunting around for a while, I decided to try the "Website Management" area. Total different interface again, loads of settings boxes and tabs. I found there on different pages where I could set the page title, and so on. But I couldn't find the banner! Anywhere!
Eventually, this morning, I found it.
In "Website Management" -> "Structure" -> "Website Settings" -> "Code Injection" -> "Advanced" -> "Site Banner HTML Override -- Edited"
I hadn't found it before, because the section I needed was "Site Banner HTML Override", and to find that, I needed to look through a drop-down box which was displaying "Extra Header Code (within )" with some javascript includes.
SERIOUSLY.
What is wrong with just having a bunch of text files, and then letting me type
"grep 2011 *"
And it giving me a list of files to edit? HOW is this graphical interface any easier?
OK. So 'grep' isn't common English, I know. Learning basic unix does have a steep looking learning curve. At first.
In case you're interested, I started, months and months ago, writing an "English-like" command shell.
So you could type commands like:
"list all files which contain 2011"
and it should tell you.
It's on sourceforge, the first alpha versions of the code.
http://sourceforge.net/projects/daftshell/
The whole idea of 'natural language' interfaces fascinates me. I should work on daftshell again, one of these days.
So. Yeah. Graphical "easy" systems aren't always easy.
