If Macs are so user-friendly...

If Macs are so user friendly how come my terminal shell on my MacBook Pro doesn't default to stty erase ^? ?

There is a persistent misconception in software product development that user friendliness means graphical user interfaces only. Is this lack of a rational default evidence of this prejudice against command lines? Hmmm.

(Yes, I know I can set it.)

Posted on: Feb 03, 2007

Posted by: MartinHardee

Category: Usability

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Comments:

I think that the thought is that if you're advanced enough to use the terminal, you're advanced enough to customize/set it up the way you want it. I don't know why advanced users are thought to deserve a lesser level of user-friendliness. It's like that in a lot of places though. If you indicate that you're an advanced user, your menu structure/options all of a sudden explode. Just because I can spend hours customizing my experience, doesn't mean that I want to.

Posted by Jonathan Lane on February 03, 2007 at 12:32 PM PST #

are you sure? looks like the default to me ..

hedge:~ jone$ stty -a
speed 9600 baud; 24 rows; 80 columns;
lflags: icanon isig iexten echo echoe -echok echoke -echonl echoctl
        -echoprt -altwerase -noflsh -tostop -flusho pendin -nokerninfo
        -extproc
iflags: -istrip icrnl -inlcr -igncr ixon -ixoff ixany imaxbel -ignbrk
        brkint -inpck -ignpar -parmrk
oflags: opost onlcr -oxtabs -onocr -onlret
cflags: cread cs8 -parenb -parodd hupcl -clocal -cstopb -crtscts -dsrflow
        -dtrflow -mdmbuf
cchars: discard = ^O; dsusp = ^Y; eof = ^D; eol = <undef>;
        eol2 = <undef>; erase = ^?; intr = ^C; kill = ^U; lnext = ^V;
        min = 1; quit = ^\; reprint = ^R; start = ^Q; status = ^T;
        stop = ^S; susp = ^Z; time = 0; werase = ^W;
hedge:~ jone$ sysctl -a hw.model machdep.cpu.brand_string
hw.model: MacBookPro2,2
machdep.cpu.brand_string: Intel(R) Core(TM)2 CPU         T7600  @ 2.33GHz

Posted by jon e on February 03, 2007 at 12:55 PM PST #

Just got a new MacBook last week. Mine seems to default to ^? and I certainly haven't changed it.

Posted by steve on February 03, 2007 at 06:52 PM PST #

Hmmm... well, maybe my distro set it weird? I certainly don't remember editing any defaults or start-up scripts, but who knows what app installer might have done something strange.

Posted by Martin Hardee on February 04, 2007 at 07:32 AM PST #

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