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Kevin wondered: <<For use in computer-related documentation: If someone
has used the term "interactively" to lead off a bullet-point about a
shell that prompts the user for needed info, then what "-ively" word
can I use to lead off the contrasting bullet about the command-line
option, where there are no prompts and you pile all the arguements into
the one command??>>
The problem with "interactively" is that it focuses on the wrong issue:
the command line version is also interactive, as anyone who remembers
the grief of iteratively retyping DOS commands until you got the syntax
right will recall. (Unix too, for that matter.)
The real issue here is probably whether there are prompts or not, or
whether the procedure is completed all at once or in a series of
inputs. That suggests you might be better using "prompted" or "guided"
or "assisted" in the "interactive" case and "unprompted" or "unguided"
or "unassisted" in the second case (the command line).
If you're stuck with "interactively", then the real difference is that
in the first case, the computer is helping you and in the second,
you're on your own. In that case, "manual' might be the better
approach--or for that matter, call a spade a digging implement and call
it the "command-line approach".
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