Character versus graphical user interfaces

These graphical payroll and character payroll programs illustrate the difference a graphical user interface (GUI) and a character or command line interface (CLI). Both programs have the same function, but the CLI version controls the flow of the interaction. The user can only respond to prompts from the program. With the GUI version, the user controls the flow of the interaction, entering either amount or clicking either button whenever he or she chooses. For this reason, these are also referred to as event-driven user interfaces.

Similarly, this GUI ping client shows user options on the left hand side of the form, and the results are displayed on the right hand side after the user clicks the Ping! button.
As you see, I requested ten, 100-character pings of www.yahoo.com. All ten pings were received and acknowledged, and the time ran from 10 to 20 milliseconds with an average of 12 and a standard deviation of 4.2163.

Since the user options are not apparent in the user interface, I displayed a help screen by typing the command ping /?. That displayed the user options for the ping client program.
With a GUI, user options are apparent in forms or menus, but that is not the case with CLI programs. For that reason, most CLI programs have accompanying help screens. For example, in Unix, one displays manual pages with man command. The command man ping would display help for ping.

Once I knew the options, I entered the command with the appropriate parameters, and pinged Yahoo ten times with 100-byte packets. This client reports the loss rate, times, and average time, but not the standard deviation of the times.

Once a user is familiar with the command options, using a CLI program may be faster than the equivalent GUI program. One can also automate a multi-step task by writing small programs or scripts that are comprised of several commands.

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Similarly, this GUI ping client shows user options on the left hand side of the form, and the results are displayed on the right hand side after the user clicks the Ping! button. As you see, I requested ten, 100-character pings of www.yahoo.com. All ten pings were received and acknowledged, and the time ran from 10 to 20 milliseconds with an average of 12 and a standard deviation of 4.2163.
Since the user options are not apparent in the user interface, I displayed a help screen by typing the command ping /?. That displayed the user options for the ping client program. With a GUI, user options are apparent in forms or menus, but that is not the case with CLI programs. For that reason, most CLI programs have accompanying help screens. For example, in Unix, one displays manual pages with man command. The command man ping would display help for ping.
Once I knew the options, I entered the command with the appropriate parameters, and pinged Yahoo ten times with 100-byte packets. This client reports the loss rate, times, and average time, but not the standard deviation of the times.