nanog mailing list archives

Re: Network device command line interfaces


From: Jay Ashworth <jra () baylink com>
Date: Mon, 28 Nov 2011 14:03:12 -0500 (EST)

----- Original Message -----
From: "James Jones" <james () freedomnet co nz>

Well said. I write scripts all day long to perform automation on networking
equipment. A device needs to have a CLI, but if you have a GUI too make for
darn sure that I can access all features in either one.

It is a relatively well established (though not always *followed*) principle
of software design that you should build a CLI that can do everything, and 
then *build your GUI on top of that*.  Among other things, this design pattern
makes it easy to capture the commands generated by a GUI session, and script
them for later use.

Cheers,
-- jra
-- 
Jay R. Ashworth                  Baylink                       jra () baylink com
Designer                     The Things I Think                       RFC 2100
Ashworth & Associates     http://baylink.pitas.com         2000 Land Rover DII
St Petersburg FL USA      http://photo.imageinc.us             +1 727 647 1274


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