[Design] Command-line for dummies

[Philippe Bossut]

Interesting idea. 2 points though:
- on the command language: looks like this needs to be very much like 
the CPIA Scripting introduced by Donn. May be a level of abstraction 
above it (enriching what Donn did basically with a set of well thought 
out primitives to that user don't have to learn Chandler's DOM and full 
fledged Python to do something) but still using Python syntax, like 
having Python command line available in Chandler basically
- on the UI: it will be a geeky (dummy geeks may be but still...) 
feature. We may not want to get it to use extra real estate. What about 
allowing typing in the status bar? If you click in there you'd get a ">" 
prompt and be ready to type a command. The good thing is that the status 
of the command will display right there.

Note that other apps do have a similarly "hidden" command-line mode for 
dummies. Browsers for instance allow javascript to be typed in the 
address bar. e.g. type the following in Safari, FireFox or IE address bar:

    javascript: alert(navigator.userAgent)

You get the browser user agent string. Saved my life a million times...

Cheers,
- Philippe

Mimi Yin wrote:

> What would it take to implement a really simple cli-for-dummies UI in  
> the near-term?
>
> 1. Big text box at the bottom of the summary pane.
> 2. If the keyboard focus is NOT in the detail view, typing text  
> automatically moves your focus to the text box.
> 3. The default action is search
> 4. Other actions you can invoke with commands which are displayed in  
> grey beneath the text box - - Navigating to a different app area,  
> collection or date in the calendar
> - Labeling/tagging the selected item in the summary pane
> - Creating a new item (just notes for now)
>
> All aided by auto-complete. I'm not asking about a particular  
> implementation or design, but just some some rough implementation of  
> the idea.
>
> Mimi
>
>
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