In the desktop world, we have the option to use the command line: a uniform interface for a multitude of apps that would otherwise be very different when implemented as GUIs.

Using the same interface, I can move or edit files, cross out tasks on my to-do list, retrieve my password for my email account (using Bitwarden or pass), etc. All in the command line. The GUI for each of those are wildly different.

The other benefit is it is very easy to create a new command line app, as opposed to a GUI.

Is anything like this possible for the smartphone world (even if it doesn’t or will never exist)? What would it look like?

Since smartphone typing is much slower, we can’t simply reuse the command line. We’d need something different. An interface that can still support a various spectrum of different operations, yet ergonomic for a smartphone. What are your thoughts?

  • @[email protected]English
    3•8 months ago

    SXMO?

    I think closest to your idea is speech recognition and an AI assistant. You can give it commands that way.

    I don’t think there’s much that includes fat fingers and touchscreens and is possible without a graphical UI.

    You could buy an old Nokia from the 90s with lots of text menus. That won’t speed things up but it’s certainly less icons, more text and as a bonus you can feel the physical buttons without looking at the phone.

    Or a Blackberry with a qwerty-keabord on it. Or use convergence and attach a proper keyboard via USB and install Termux.

    Theoretically you could have it project a “holographic” keyboard onto the desk in front of you. Or use VR glasses.

    Or hold it sideways and type with 8 fingers simultaneously alike on a stenotype keyboard.

    That’d be ways to improve on the keyboard / input method and allow you to use the CLI in it’s current form. I mean the CLI itself is already available. It’s just cumbersome to use it. I’d say a speech assistant is more it, if you want an entirely different concept and not just a better keyboard and/or larger screen.