# The best description of it is probably still in Licklider’s Man-Computer
Symbiosis & Englebart’s…

I’ve written some specific recommendations here, with regard to bringing the
expressive power & flexibility of command line interfaces to…

* * *

The best description of it is probably still in Licklider’s [Man-Computer
Symbiosis](http://groups.csail.mit.edu/medg/people/psz/Licklider.html) &
Englebart’s [Augmenting Human
Intellect](http://www.dougengelbart.org/pubs/augment-3906.html). However, this
kind of symbiotic relationship is familiar to any developer who frequently
does iterative development in a REPL — which is to say, almost everybody who
develops in a scripting language on a unix.

I’ve written some specific recommendations here, with regard to bringing the
expressive power & flexibility of command line interfaces to the GUI realm:

[ **Some tentative guidelines for GUI composability**  
 _Introduction_ hackernoon.com](https://hackernoon.com/some-tentative-
guidelines-for-gui-composability-2900abead1d9 "https://hackernoon.com/some-
tentative-guidelines-for-gui-
composability-2900abead1d9")[](https://hackernoon.com/some-tentative-
guidelines-for-gui-composability-2900abead1d9)

As for forces that oppose this, I’d have to just point at lack of political
will, short-termism, a focus on marketability and backward compatibility, and
a general lack of interest in empowering people when it doesn’t add to the
bottom line.

(In other words, capitalism.)

By [John Ohno](https://medium.com/@enkiv2) on [February 25,
2018](https://medium.com/p/a03143bc81b7).

[Canonical link](https://medium.com/@enkiv2/the-best-description-of-it-is-
probably-still-in-lickliders-man-computer-symbiosis-englebart-s-a03143bc81b7)

Exported from [Medium](https://medium.com) on September 18, 2020.