Idea: Create a tool to run programs by displaying a ncurses dialog to select/set parameters and then running it with them.

The idea is that there’d be a tool that you could use like this:

pick mplayer

It would use the knowledge you have in explainshell, to open an ncurses (or if $DISPLAY is available and it’s configured to do that, even an X) dialog, containing all the settings in plain English, with checkboxes, text input fields, file selection dialogs, date selectors, dropdowns, and other widgets, depending on what the setting expects.

The full explanation of the setting would also be available. Preferably without having to click anything, but just by moving the cursor there. Like the rightmost column on a traditional BIOS settings UI.

When the user has set what he wants, the dialog exists, and displays something like:

Running: mplayer -someparameters -someparameter somefile etc …

Ideally with pretty color syntax highlighting, but that’s purely icing on top.

Distributions could integrate this, a way to pick shell executables and generally files from a menu, and a little getting started info when a terminal is opened, and have a CLI interface that even a clueless person can comfortably use,
without limiting experienced users even a single bit. (Frankly, as an experienced user, who has written whole software projects in bash, I’d still love this too.)

No files, tests, or implementation entry points are named. Start by reviewing explainshell’s existing command and help-text knowledge, then determine how the proposed ncurses or X interface would obtain parameters and explanations. Done would require a scoped design and an implemented tool that selects settings and runs the resulting command.