Side effects?

Kevin Walzer kw at codebykevin.com
Thu Jan 31 15:26:34 PST 2013


On 1/31/13 6:11 PM, James Linder wrote:
> CLI does the job nicely and well, why on earth would you seek to make an easy, automateable task hard/impossible.

Here are a few things that a GUI can do that the CLI cannot:

1. Filter ports by category. port offers no way to see all the "aqua" 
ports, for instance.
2. Browse and sort ports visually. "port list" dumps all available ports 
to the Terminal, but you can't sort them with a single click.
3. Get the homepage of a port with a click. A GUI can format web pages 
as hyperlinks, but "port info" can't.
4. Save yourself from fat-fingering the command invocation to install a 
particular port.

CLI is an essential tool, and for uber-power-users it may be easier than 
a GUI. But for a high-level view of MacPorts, the GUI is better, in my 
view.

-- 
Kevin Walzer
Code by Kevin
http://www.codebykevin.com


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