Command line interface

A "command line interface" or CLI is a method of human-computer interaction that receives lines of commands in written form either from keyboard input or from a script and generally outputs only text to the display. Examples include the Unix shell, VMS DCL, and related follow-on designs like CP/M and MS-DOS.

Contrast with Graphical user interface. Even though new users seem to learn GUIs more quickly, CLIs are still important because some of the more powerful CLIs double as [scripting language]?s (see shell script) and can perform operations in a [batch processing]? mode without user interaction.

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See (as soon as pssible, IMHO): "In the Beginning Was the Command Line", by Neal Stephenson http://www-classic.be.com/users/cryptonomicon/beginning_print.html