What is the command line

The command line is a user interface in which navigation is done by typing commands rather than using the mouse. The command line is also called a command line interface, or console. It is a type of text interface (CUI) and can only use the keyboard.

The opposite systems are GUI and/or menu based programs.

Because the command line requires unique commands, learning to use it is often more difficult because of the need to memorize them. Nevertheless, the operating system command line can be a very valuable resource and should not be ignored.

A text interface with menus
Navigation in the text interface can be simplified with menus created using extended ASCII characters. For example, many command line text editors have some type of interface using menus and shortcuts that make it easy to navigate through the file you are editing. Below is an example of an MS-DOS editor used to edit files.

Although the menu-driven text interface is much more attractive than the command line interface, it is still a text interface and not a graphical one.

Terminal
A terminal is a program which emulates the behavior of an “iron” terminal, consisting of a keyboard and a monitor. In the simplest case it is just a window with a command line inside. A good terminal isn’t limited to one window but allows to open new terminals in tabs, just like tabs in a browser. This is a feature of terminals included in Ubuntu and macOS. Windows terminal knows absolutely nothing and needs to be replaced.

Some terminals allow you to make splits, that is, split the window into parts.