I'm going to throw a thought out to you and I'd like your opinions on it. "Front end developers are more likely to want to use a GUI than the CLI" 🎣 Thoughts?

@JavaScriptCoff1 I don't think that's the case. The CLI is a necessity for everyone working with frameworks. GUI is probably better for those that don't use frameworks at all.

@JavaScriptCoff1 Counterpoint. Frontend developers are more likely to get annoyed at bad UX.

@JavaScriptCoff1 This FE developer strongly prefers a CLI to a GUI. It feels like less abstraction. And CLI works better with keyboard, more ergonomic than mousing around a GUI.

@JavaScriptCoff1 Based on my experience, I'd rephrase as "Junior developers are more likely to want to use a GUI than the CLI" GUIs serve as a good abstraction over the complexities of a CLI, but are inherently lossy in their efficiency & capabilities. A good start, but not for harder problems.

@JavaScriptCoff1 I feel like UIs generally take longer to do things, and you can’t script them. So I prefer a CLI in almost all cases.

@JavaScriptCoff1 CLI > GUI for me.

@JavaScriptCoff1 New devs or younger devs start at the GUI place, but the is an upper limit to productivity in a GUI be in a CLI. I see it like "Junior devs use the mouse, mid level devs use the mouse less, senior devs dust it off periodically."

@JavaScriptCoff1 It's complicated... I regard myself as an experienced engineer but still insist on using a GUI git client because it has situational awareness affordances that a CLI can't easily provide. For frontend projects I look for CLI every time because it makes scripting possible.

@JavaScriptCoff1 I think I agree. But on the other hand I also think everyone loves great GUI tools if they're actually easier to use. I'm a fullstack dev, doing FE,BE and a little bit of DevOps, but there are few tasks I prefer to use the CLI option rather than the GUI one.

@JavaScriptCoff1 I don't think it's a frontend thing. Some backend devs use GitHub GUI. For me, I'll say it depends on the person and the intricacies of the project they are working. I might use GUI sometimes for a quick fix but CLI is my preferred choice in the long run.

@JavaScriptCoff1 Yes utilizing the GUI of any application helps front end developers in understanding end to end application flow but also utilization of the CLI is important to front end devs who want to transition to a full stack developer.

@JavaScriptCoff1 Use the tools that make you most effective 🧙

@JavaScriptCoff1 I can only talk about myself. I love Vue UI. I get the ease of typing stuff. It's fast and all but not without a cost. I dont want to remember a million stuff. If CLI stuff had autocomplete its a totally different game for me.

@JavaScriptCoff1 Not necessarily, I prefer a GUI if it's done properly and makes the job easier (e. g. Git guis) but i prefer clis when I can do something in a command rather than 5 clicks

@JavaScriptCoff1 I like to use the GUI when I'm alone, and the CLI when a lot of people see me because it makes me cooler 😂😂 jk

@JavaScriptCoff1 I would say it depends on how far along they are. GUI’s are great for beginners but once you get to a certain level you want the productivity and advanced methods of use enabled by a CLI

@JavaScriptCoff1 Sounds totally reasonable. Frontend inclined folks are clearly more interested in visual feedback given their work while backend focused folks are more into the invisible machinery behind the curtain. I'd say you're correct and the above is probably a pretty good reason as to why

@JavaScriptCoff1 I need it

@JavaScriptCoff1 I think it’s natural in the beginning to use GUI, but with time and experience CLI is the must.

@JavaScriptCoff1 No, Just no

@JavaScriptCoff1 Developers are more likely to use Interfaces that help them get the job done hassle-free. I prefer CLI for all git operations because its fast and lets me do more things in less time. However, I prefer VS code for merge conflict resolution because that's faster and hassle-free

@JavaScriptCoff1 Depends how good the GUI is. Probably lean towards CLI in most cases.

@JavaScriptCoff1 That's why they are 'Front end developers'

@JavaScriptCoff1 CLI and overall, using the keyboard is more efficient. Of course, this is only when you are comfortable and remember commands without too much trouble. I spend most of my time doing frontend and prefer CLI where I can. I have aliases for commands that help me do things faster

@JavaScriptCoff1 What about full stack developers? What do they prefer?

@JavaScriptCoff1 in my experience it's quite the opposite... Actually, they prefer stuff like Pulumi or CDK, which is IAC done in Javascript or similar

@JavaScriptCoff1 Hmmm depends on the specific CLI/GUI and what process the dev is going through. I’m a front end dev and actually once went for 6 years straight not building one user interface, I purely worked on under-the-hood JavaScript stuff.

@JavaScriptCoff1 For me personally I have been using vs code terminal for all my work github or otherwise so I think the CLI

@JavaScriptCoff1 The testing. 🙂

@JavaScriptCoff1 Ah.. I love CLI, very comfortable with it. I don’t know where that opinion comes from, but I feel like most FE I know feel the same way.

@JavaScriptCoff1 I remember messing around on the GH GUI when I was first starting out and it made no sense to me. Shortly after I was introduced to the CLI it was perfectly obvious that this was the only route forward for me. Like many of you, I can't imagine working without a CLI

@JavaScriptCoff1 1. True for super juniors or low code devs and non devs that build sites 2. Similarity to existing tools is more important than GUI vs CLI: we have to use npm and so another npm script is easy but a bespoke tool (GUI or cli) is another annoying thing to learn