linuxmemes

While you don't need to memorize button locations and menus, the frustration is that it takes longer, and memorizing those details slightly mitigates. It's torture helping someone do something while they hunt for the UI element they need to get to the next level of hierarchy. They will do it, in time, but it just feels like an eternity.

The main issue in GUI versus CLI is that GUI narrows the available options at a time. This is great, for special purpose usage. But if you have complex stuff to do, a CLI can provide more instant access to a huge chunk of capabilities, and provide a framework for connecting capabilities together as well as a starting point for making repeatable content, or for communicating in a forum how to fix something. Just run command "X" instead of a series of screenshots navigating to the bowels of a GUI to do some obscure thing.

Of course UI people have generally recognized the power and usefulness of text based input to drive actions and any vaguely powerful GUI has to have some "CLI-ness" to it.

To be fair if you want to learn your options (without properly informing yourself using a manual) tab complete can be useful if implemented.

Also most programs come with their manuals so I'd barely call it external. The manuals are also usually better than what I've come to expect from the text to go with buttons in a GUI.

Knowing what commands are required is always going to be necessary but there's also not that many worth remembering.

The alternative to memorization is the analog to "hunt and peck typing" where you just search the whole fucking screen/program.