Terminal
Also: 終端機 · 終端 · 命令列視窗 · terminal window
A window you type into to talk to your computer.
When you will meet it
Almost every AI tool's install guide starts with "open a terminal". Without it, every later command is unreachable.
An analogy
A GUI is ordering from a picture menu. A terminal is talking to the kitchen directly: you must know the dish names, but you can ask for things the menu never listed.
Minimal example
macOS：Command + 空白鍵 → 輸入 Terminal → Enter
Windows：開始 → 輸入 PowerShell → Enter
Linux：Ctrl + Alt + TOnce open you will see a line ending in % or $. That symbol is the prompt, and it means the computer is waiting for you.
What people get wrong
- Treating terminal, shell and CLI as one thing. The terminal is the window, the shell is the program inside it that interprets your commands, and CLI is the general idea of a text-based interface.
- Pasting a command from the internet without knowing which files it touches. Understand it, then press Enter.
Related terms
Next
- 五分鐘設置你的 LLM 開發環境15 minChinese only