I'm a
technical writer, and I believe you've missed an important point in your excellent writeup,
Semprini. I think that it goes beyond the
command prompt. People will learn what they need to know, and usually stop. That's why a
vast majority know how to use the basics of
Word and
WordPerfect, but don't know how to create
macros.
Word processors all have a nice GUI interface. They have rows of buttons at the top of the screen to adjust almost anything you desire. These buttons are, for the most part, used by folks who are not proficient with the software. For those who write the occasional letter or school paper, the GUI is perfect.
For those of us who depend on the word processor for our livelihood, however, the GUI interface is mostly ignored. Anything that removes our hands from the keyboard slows the process. Almost every proficient writer knows the keyboard shortcuts by heart. In Word, if they want to do a spell check, they hit the F7 key. If they need to replace all instances of the word "color" with the UK English "colour", then they just hit the ALT-R combination.
Those who know the keyboard routines for shortcuts or command line inputs are the ones who understand the application. For those of you who know DOS commands, how many times have you rescued someone because their Windows crashed? I helped so many folks with GUI-itus that I now insist that they watch me and learn the process, because I only will do it once per person.