When Linux was born, there was no graphical interface, and users could only interact with computers through the command line. At that time, computer interfaces were mostly black and white terminals, and all operations were realized by inputting various commands on the command line. Even now, although linux provides a graphical interface and UI, developers still need to use cmd for various system operations. The premise is that we learn how to use cmd. For example, common commands, such as ls, cd, mkdir, top, df, du, cat, grep, find, vi, etc. Linux provides hundreds of common commands, which cover file management, user management, network configuration, system monitoring and other aspects. Users can check the man provided by linux to see how to use a command, or find the command that wants to specify an operation through apropos. But sometimes even after reading these manuals, they don’t know how to use it, and they need to attach various parameters. If they don’t use it often, they will easily forget it. For novices and novices, the curve of learning linux is very steep.
In my years of linux development, I found that some commands are very easy to use, while others are complicated and difficult to remember. If the commands of an operating system are difficult to use, the usability of the operating system itself will be greatly reduced, which will affect its popularity. Therefore, in order to improve the usability of linux, on the one hand, we can start from the aspect of cmd and make a multi-dimensional score for all cmds commonly used in Linux. For example, the evaluation is made from the following dimensions:
- Ease of use: whether the command can easily achieve the goal.
- Easy to remember: whether the command is easy to remember and avoid frequent forgetting.
- Composability: the cooperation and compatibility between commands and other commands.
Every command should accept such a score. If the score of a cmd can’t reach the passing score, then the cmd should be pushed to the upstream community, telling the author that it is time for them to optimize this cmd, or some related engineers develop a new cmd with the same function, and the old cmd will be replaced by the newly developed cmd and integrated into the new version of Linux. In this way, Linux system will become easier to use and more popular. We expect a more friendly Linux operating system to help users complete various tasks more efficiently.