GUI and Command-line-Conflict or Synergy?
Antony R. Unwin, Heike Hofmann · 1999
this paper is not to push one interface approach over the other but to outline the differences between them, to discuss their respective strengths and weaknesses and to review the potential for combining them effectively. Command-line interfaces allow the precise, repeatable commands of the traditional computer science approach and are associated with displaying optimal results for well-defined questions. They need not, of course, be restricted only to command-line input and linear output. GUIs should allow direct, interactive manipulation, a more modern approach associated with searching for information and interesting structures without fully specified questions. The emphasis with GUIs should be on direct manipulation systems and not on menu systems.