#### [[GUI v.s. terminal apps humans are visual creatures]] --- Terminal applications^[[[CLI Tools]]]^[[[Vim]]]^[[[vimwiki]]] are: - very useful - fast - efficient - minimal - keyboard-centric - simpler They are very efficient ways of interacting with your computer as it deals with less layers of abstraction that something like a GUI^[Graphical User Interface]. These applications are very efficient in that they are: - Not resource intensive - keep your fingers on the keyboard - reduce the layers from command and outcome GUI applications are more visual representations of these programs. You can think of them as like a clock. You can strip away the outer casing and deal with the gears and cogs to tell the time, but the GUI provides a pretty casing and more aesthetic interface to interact with (the clock face). In many ways, for those not decently versed in the world of Horology (the study of mechanical time-keeping devices) a simpler interface will get the job done, be efficient enough, and get out of the users way. For many this is not good enough. For many people the power of a simple textual interface, the terminal, and reduction of layers between user and the machine is desired, and the portable commands, and simple interfaces between the programs means that work in the terminal is predictable, where as GUI applications can do many things differently and have complex and disjointed interfaces / API's. The main comparative points i see between CLI and GUI applications are: | **CLI** | **GUI** | | ------------------------------------ | --------------------------------------- | | Fast | slower | | Efficient | less Efficient | | Keyboard Centric | Often not fully keyboard capable | | Common Interfaces (stdin/out/err) | complex / disjointed interfaces / API's | | Minimalistic | Large dependency trees / footprints | | Not Resource intensive | resource intensive | | Simpler | Complex | | Text only interfaces can be limiting | Visual interfaces | --- Tags: [[Visual Learning]] - [[Minimalism]] Reference: Related: - [[Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic 1]]