> One way to add some level of complexity is to add JSON output to programs. Then you can push them trough `jq` instead of `grep`, `sed`, or `awk`. Or push it through another tool to make a nice table.
That's still text. Even PowerShell passes objects between commands.
Plan9 did this correctly. A terminal was just a window which could run graphical applications or textual applications. Locally or remotely. It all worked. You create a window, you get a shell with a text prompt. You can do text stuff all day long. But maybe you want that window to be a file manager, now? Launch vdir, and now that same window is home to a graphical file browser. close that and remote into another plan9 machine. launch doom. it runs. it all just works, and it all works smoothly.
And the entire source code for that OS could fit into one person's brain.
It is a very simple OS, appears (to my layman eye) to have sandboxing between all applications by default (via per-process namespaces) making it very easy to keep one application off of your network while allowing others to talk via network as much as they want, for example.
That's still text. Even PowerShell passes objects between commands.
Plan9 did this correctly. A terminal was just a window which could run graphical applications or textual applications. Locally or remotely. It all worked. You create a window, you get a shell with a text prompt. You can do text stuff all day long. But maybe you want that window to be a file manager, now? Launch vdir, and now that same window is home to a graphical file browser. close that and remote into another plan9 machine. launch doom. it runs. it all just works, and it all works smoothly.
And the entire source code for that OS could fit into one person's brain.
It is a very simple OS, appears (to my layman eye) to have sandboxing between all applications by default (via per-process namespaces) making it very easy to keep one application off of your network while allowing others to talk via network as much as they want, for example.