Shell

Once upon a time, there was a Microsoft Operating System that had no windows: The Microsoft Disk Operating System (MS-DOS). In order to access folders, people had to type commands into a shell (aka terminal, command prompt or console).

Although modern PCs allow you to access files via mouse clicks on icons arranged on windows, the terminal does still exist. Depending on the operating system, it is named:

• Terminal (Unix = Apple / Linux)

• Powershell or Command Prompt (Windows)

And, even today, the terminal is actually useful! Especially in the context of programming. Imagine you want to write a program that opens another program: how to code the path with the pointer to move to the right location where the program is located? Indeed, that would be far over-engineered. But no worries, you can access files and execute programs using simple command line arguments.