Command line interpreter

From open-encyclopedia.com - the free encyclopedia.

A command line interpreter is a computer program which reads a line of text the user has typed and interprets this text in the context of a given operating system or programming language.

Command line interpreters have the advantage that the user may issue a lot of commands in a very terse and efficient way. The downside is that one has to know the commands and their parameters. Examples of command line interpreters:

• the various Unix shell programs such as Bash
• command.com (DOS, Windows).
• TSO under MVS
• CMS under VM/CMS
• CL for OS/400

The graphical user interfaces were an answer to this problem. However for certain complex tasks GUIs are more difficult to use than a command line interface, because of the large number of menus and dialog boxes presented, and therefore a well designed command line interface is easier to use.

• Scripting programming languages with an eval function, such as Perl, Python or Jython can serve as command line interpreters, and can also be used to create a more flexible Command line interface.

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