Software developers like the command line interface because it lets them get closer to the underlying system software. System administrators use terminal emulation a lot there are some things they can’t do any other way.

Every major operating system offers one or more terminal emulator applications, letting users type in command lines and get back text responses. Today, hardly anyone makes terminals any more, yet the technology is far from dead. They were far more convenient than ancient technologies like paper tape and punch cards.

Once upon a time, text terminals were the state of the art for communicating with computers.