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Discussion on: Explain the difference between shell, console, terminal, command line, etc. like I'm five 👶

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pedrohasantiago profile image
Pedro S

Trying to explain as if you're really 5 yo (ok, maybe 7):

  • Shell is a computer program. A computer program is like a robot: it does stuff it was programmed to do;
  • But we can't actually talk to the robot, it's not close to us. We talk to the robot with a computer in a command line interface: instead of pointing and clicking with the mouse, we write commands and read a response back from the robot;
  • We don't write the commands anywhere. It won't work if we write the commands in Google Chrome, for example. We have to write them in a program called console or terminal. This program will deliver the commands to the shell.
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tux0r profile image
tux0r

A terminal can be its own hardware - originally, it always was. Today's "terminals" are mostly terminal emulators.

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ignoreintuition profile image
Brian Greig

Nailed it

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mondirhallouli profile image
Mondir Hallouli

Hey, thanks for the explanation, so basically:

-The SHELL is a robot-like program.

-to talk to this robot you have to use a "translator" where you can write commands, and that's the COMMAND LINE.

-this "translator" needs a tool where you can actually write the commands. That's the TERMINAL(in an OS) or a CONSOLE(in a browser).

P.S.: A command line is within the terminal or console, so it's more like a concept