Linked by Greg Afinogenov on Wed 3rd Sep 2003 07:19 UTC
It is not fashionable nowadays to speak of the merits of the command line, in an age where things like streaming video and Aqua are an integral part of our daily life. However, I do not think that typed-in commands must necessarily be consigned to the dustbin of computer history. Of course, I am not suggesting that we all drop X and Windows and pretend like we are living in the early eighties. The command line interface still has much to offer us, and many of its benefits simply cannot physically be emulated or even replaced by graphical ones.
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The difference boils down to the difference between free recall (CLI) and forced choice recall (GUI).
In free recall you have to pluck it out of your brain when it is needed without any stimulus to aid the process. Forced choice forces you to choose from a menu of choices the tradeoff is that a menu must be of a limited length to be useful therefore the options are limited. Your brain is essentially the limit in free recall.
Now in free recall you have a lot of choices but they only present themselves if you are using the system often and reinforcing the memories on a constant basis, stop using them for a while and they will start to decay. So if you are constantly using a command line interface it can be a much more powerful option. This is what leads to the power user image associated with CLI. However if you stop using it for a while you are forced to resort to GUI like tactics such as man pages and other references which slow the process down as the memories need to be refreshed
The GUI side is better in more general uses. In situations where the memories are not constantly refreshed and therefore are better suited to everyday needs of most people. Most people are not power users and do not want to be as they have other professions that are better served by spending their time doing those professions rather than using their learning resources on remembering commands. The waters are further muddied here to as often GUI people who use programs a lot also resort to free recall (or command line like) behaviour such as shortcut keys
So as with most things things it is a horses for courses division, both have valuable attributes and areas to which they are better suited and in both approaches there are drawbacks.