Easiestquickest method for very simple interfaces 4021

That's true, but my case is different. I do not want to handle foreign systems, but I want to optimize my own for my special tasks. Yet you think more about it, than if you had the easiest possible GUI. There wouldn't be any nuclear reactors if there were no graphical monitors and fool-proof (hardware) switches instead of a single command line interface. Because the usual "car system" is almost the most intuitive. I'm not saying you need Windows style OK-Buttons. Things just should be visual, because that's the way humans think. There have been scientific studies showing that people can handle only a limited amount of items at once. Say you want to evaluate items and order them. With only a few items you look once, get an overall impression and know the order. With more items you need to resort to typical algorithms. That's OK for speed. What I have to do is to deal with (a moderate) amount of data files. Then it helps a lot if there are visual previews and I can click on them instead of looking up filenames. Also seeing the files you use can never be a disadvantage. I have datafiles. They can be added (many input, one output), subtracted, corrected (one input, one output) and plotted (many input, gnuplot output). Single data lines in the file can also be input parameters for other procedures. Looking at the raw data in an editor is not impossible, but inconvenient. A spreadsheet like parameter overview would help to find data with parameters I want to consider.

I've written simple command line perl scripts, but they need optimization for the best infrastructure. As always in programming... I meant offering choices (e.g. checkboxes, choice lists). In the future A.I. could offer commands where you can chose from if one of them suits your needs. Automated reinterpretation would be Windows programs which have those hidden, terribly annoying autocorrect "features" I've always hated. I don't object. Let's agree on that you need both: Educated users and intuitive interfaces.

Anton