title: Do Character User Interfaces have a future?
body: <p>We've got products built both with GUI and CHUI. Going forward, we're looking at redesigning a lot of our software and mainly taking the route of going all GUI. My question to the group is, do we need to account for keeping a CHUI around? What are the advantages of CHUI over GUI? Many times in the past people have said that CHUI is faster because you don't need a mouse. I argue that GUI can be just as fast with the right keyboard shortcuts, hotkeys and/or touch screens.</p>
  
  <p>Is CHUI something we should no longer consider if hardware no longer provides a constraint?</p>
  
  <p>Also to clarify, when I speak about CHUI I mean a CHaracter based User Interface, and I'm also mainly concerned with the effective presentation of data to an end user.</p>
  
  <p>There have been some fantastic responses that have highlighted the importance of having a command line based interface for automation and scripting based tasks which I will certainly take to heart when we begin the design!</p>