When is a command line interface more efficient rather then a GUI interface?

Question

When would a Command Line Interface be more efficient/useful rather than a GUI?

Thanks in advance :)

Thanks David!

Seif that didn't really help me with my answer other than the fact that it tends to do functions quicker then GUI.

Thanks anyway!

Answer 1

If you know what you are doing and assuming you can type reasonably well, a command line interface is frequently faster and easier than a GUI. I use Unix, Linux, DOS. For example to see the text files in a directory. ls *.txt, or dir *.txt. To go to a particular directory (or "folder") cd \win\system32\drivers\etc (DOS) or cd /usr/local/bin (Unix). Any of these examples are faster than endless pointing, clicking, scrolling, click again.

One other strength of the command line is the ability to chain commands together. Your can "grep" (Unix) or "find" (DOS) certain text from a file or files, and "pipe" '|' the output into another command. I frequently will chain two or more commands together to accomplish a task.

If you've grown up with a GUI, it may be more difficult to grasp the efficiency of a command line, but it does in exist in many - but not every case.

Answer 2

CLI (Command Line Interface) and GUI (Graphical User Interface) can be used in the same program, or to view the same thing in different formats. It's like viewing a website in normal view (any site you go to in your browser), would be through GUI, but you can click on view>source, and it will show you the code for the website. An example of a program that uses both GUI and CLI interfaces is Dreamweaver. Using a CLI can be more efficient if you want to look at the intricacies (not sure if that's spelt right) of something inparticular. E.G. Theres an error on a website page and it has something to do with a mistake in the code. You most likely won't be able to see where the error is, or how it has occured by looking at it in GUI, but if you open it in CLI, you can check the code, and thereby locate and fix the error. I hope that helped lol

Answer 3

Do you prefer speed to graphics, or the other way round? Unlike GUI, commandlines dont use too much system resources e.g RAM. This makes your work faster. I would recommend commandlines if you are in need of speed. However, if you're not in a rush and have time to waste, enjoy grahic interphase. I must admit i like it too sometimes.

Answer 4

I somethimes use the msdos command line when searching for files. Explorer doesn't seem to find everything. eg
dir /s fred*.*