Re: OT: automation

[olafBuddenhagen]

Hi,

On Wed, Nov 04, 2009 at 10:59:05AM +0100, Arne Babenhauserheide wrote:
> Am Sonntag, 1. November 2009 13:17:27 schrieb olafBuddenhagen@gmx.net:

> > For example I used to do my Google and LEO searches by hand:
> > 
> >    netrik google.com/search?q=foo+bar netrik
> >    dict.leo.org?search=foo+bar
> > 
> 
> For these I use alt-F2 and Konqueror: 
> 
> alt-F2 -> gg:google search -> enter -> konqueror starts the search.

It's stupid to have such a feature *within* some program. Such stuff
should be handled globally. See my recent rant:

   http://tri-ceps.blogspot.com/2009/06/one-shell-to-rule-them-all.html

(IMHO one of my best so far :-) )

I actually forgot to mention one important point in this rant; or
perhaps I meant to keep it up for another article (it is related to
session management): traditional applications create a totally useless
grouping of activities. "Web browsing" is not an activity. It is part of
various other activities. When I'm working on something, and then want
to look something up on google or leo, I want to do this *from the shell
I'm currently working in*; and not first go to some other application to
launch the search...

> Just like a shell, but with images :) 

Well, AFAIK it's possible to open new Firefox windows from the shell
somehow (I guess that's also true for Konqueror) -- but I never bothered
to learn how... It's just stupid that with the fat full-featured
browsers, opening a new page from the shell is not just as easy as
starting the browser in the default way.

This is indeed the reason I created netrik: to have a browser that is as
handy as existing text mode browsers, but can offer a richer
environmenet when needed... I wonder whether I will ever be able to
deliver on that goal :-)

> I use GUIs most of the time, and most of my friends do that, too, so
> my files with spaces etc. are far more convenient (easier to read)
> than files with underscores and escapes like "ae" for "ä". 

Please do not throw spaces and national characters in the same category.
The latter are perfectly fine on any system that is not seriously
broken. They do not have a special meaning for the shell. Spaces (and
some other characters) do.

As for use of spaces and other shell characters in file names: given the
choice between beauty, and being able to use the power of the shell, I
definitely opt for the latter :-)

-antrik-