The Semantic Line Interface

First time accepted submitter yuriyg_ua writes "[The] semantic line interface may combine features of both command line and graphical interface, which would allow even more complex applications than we have seen before." The idea is that the layer underlying user interfaces should define the semantic relations between data enabling the UI to provide better contextual information. Kind of a modern version of the CLIM presentation system.

This isn't new.

[MrEricSir]

Go back and play Hugo's House of Horrors (or many similiar adventure games of the not-quite-post-text era) and you'll see an interface that looks a lot like what this guy is describing.

Command line

[Overly Critical Guy]

The command line is not coming back, especially with more applications moving to mobile devices where typing is just a hassle. The CLI will remain a nerd's tool. That's just reality.

Re:Uhhhh

[sunderland56]

Or like Google Instant Search does now, only in a command line.

In short: slow and annoying for people who know what they're doing. Supposedly useful for people without a clue.

Re:This isn't new.

[Darinbob]

Or any of the Lisp machine variants that blurred the line between CLI and GUI and editor; plus the lines between OS and application. I still haven't seen any user interface that comes close to what you had on a Symbolics machine. Ie, click on a word in your command line, get a drop down menu of command options, etc. There was definitely a contextual user interface going on there. Of course these systems were designed for programmers whereas most people make UIs for end users or administrators instead.

Re:Command line

[grumbel]

The overarching issue isn't really CLI vs GUI, but that the OS provides the user with very little semantic information, instead you simply get pretty pixel graphics. Case in point: Look at your screen right now, how much of the text you see can you select and copy as text? The answer will of course vary depending on what you do, but you can be pretty sure that it will be a good bit lower then 100% (i.e. window titles, menus, etc. can't be selected). There is really no good reason for that being that way, other then that being the way it has always been. The text is available to the OS and the applications, but there are no tools to get it out or at least not easily. Now that's of course just a very basic case, the issues goes of course much deeper when it comes to active parts of the GUI. When your filemanager is displaying a list, can you copy it into a spreadsheet? Can you move the play button of your MP3 player over to your iPhone? etc. Some of those use cases are of course a little far fetched, but essentially what you want is a rich and flexible way to interact with your computer. Neither CLIs nor GUIs really provide that and both of them don't really mix well (i.e. double clicking on the output of 'ls' should allow you to open a file).

Re:The semantic web just doesn't exist

[martin-boundary]

Exactly. My point is it shouldn't be up to them. I have a computer that can spider the articles like a regular user, including the ads if that's what it takes, and I have processing tools on my machine to mine the content. What I don't have (but *should*, IMHO) are tools that make this pipeline so effortless that I can use them regularly during web surfing.