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Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).

Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.

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A strange "terminal emulator" idea I got, tho I bet this exists (lemmy.world)

submitted 4 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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I know that GUI does not cover most of functionalities, for good reasons - being specialized to task (like files app), it provides more fine-grained experience.

Yet, I find that there are common commands which is terminal-only, or not faithfully implemented. for instance,

Commands like apt update/apt upgrade might be needed, as GUI may not allow enough interactions with it.
I heard some immutable distros require running commands for rollbacks.

These could cause some annoyance for those who want to avoid terminal unless necessary (including me). Hence, I bet there are terminal emulators which restricts what commands you could run, and above all, present them as buttons. This will make you recall the commonly used commands, and run them accordingly. Is there projects similar to what I describe? Thanks!

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[–] [email protected] 13 points 4 months ago (1 children)

The thing is that there is no middle ground, the terminal you described would either have the problems of a GUI (limited interactivity) or the problems of a CLI (unintuitive).

If you do a button to do things you've removed option to do different things, if you ask them for text you've removed the intuitivity of a button. If you present less options you might not cover all cases, if you present more options it's a regular terminal.

It seems that the issue you have is that you need a way to quickly redo commands you've done before and you need a good way to know what options you have. I have 2 CLI solutions for you.

If you press Ctrl+R and start typing a command it will auto-complete to the latest command you ran that matches
If you install zsh and grml-zsh-config and switch to zsh you will have a very powerful auto-complete that will allow you to press tab to auto-complete most parameters of most common operations.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 4 months ago

Yeah, I understand that this is difficult. But I am suggesting this considering lack of polish (ime) in commands.

On the recalling, remembering entire commands is not the problematic one for me. Rather, I want a quick way to go with which apps do which.

Also, terminals (that is, how most of the commands run) honestly do not look and feel good. I do think polished TUI could be a good solution, but they are not widespread.