The fear of the terminal

The command line interface, or CLI for short, can be quite an intimidating thing. When you start it up, it just sits there waiting for you to input your commands. It almost feels like a mafia hitman waiting for you to pick a person to whack.

I suppose the fact that the CLI never proactively engages the user into interaction makes up about 50% of the total intimidation factor. The other half is probably made up by the "know your shit" part of the whole CLI user experience. You know, the "just type 'man [command]' to get help on stuff" advice that is only slightly worse than getting no advice at all.

So, I don't find it especially odd that people really do seem to be afraid of the terminal. To overcome this fear in our little office, I've hatched a devious plan: introduce people to the brilliance of CLI via a friendly and helpful chatbot.

The chatbot works remarkably like a CLI but there are some key differences: it works in a friendly and familiar environment (i.e. the chat client) and it never does anything destructive. Also, the commands are logical and easy to remember, so the "know your shit" part stays out of the way as much as possible.

Of course, using an actual CLI also requires knowledge of some basic file system concepts (like files and directories) but in this case, that should not be a problem. Once we familiarize people with the idea of giving commands without any proactive engagement from the receiving end of the interaction, we've almost rid them of the terror that is the fear of the terminal.

Until then, I just hope our chatbot stays friendly and refrains from trying to enslave the human race.