This article refers to applications with text input consoles. See console game

Console game

A console game is a form of interactive multimedia used for entertainment. The game consists of manipulable images generated by a video game console, and displayed on a television or similar audio-video system. The game itself is usually controlled and manipulated using a handheld device connected...

 for more information about applications that can run on video game console

Video game console

A video game console is an interactive entertainment computer or customized computer system that produces a video display signal which can be used with a display device to display a video game...

s.

A console application is a computer program

Computer program

A computer program is a sequence of instructions written to perform a specified task with a computer. A computer requires programs to function, typically executing the program's instructions in a central processor. The program has an executable form that the computer can use directly to execute...

 designed to be used via a text-only computer interface, such as a text terminal, the command line interface of some operating system

Operating system

An operating system is a set of programs that manage computer hardware resources and provide common services for application software. The operating system is the most important type of system software in a computer system...

s (Unix

Unix

Unix is a multitasking, multi-user computer operating system originally developed in 1969 by a group of AT&T employees at Bell Labs, including Ken Thompson, Dennis Ritchie, Brian Kernighan, Douglas McIlroy, and Joe Ossanna...

, DOS

DOS

DOS, short for "Disk Operating System", is an acronym for several closely related operating systems that dominated the IBM PC compatible market between 1981 and 1995, or until about 2000 if one includes the partially DOS-based Microsoft Windows versions 95, 98, and Millennium Edition.Related...

, etc.) or the text-based interface included with most Graphical User Interface

Graphical user interface

In computing, a graphical user interface is a type of user interface that allows users to interact with electronic devices with images rather than text commands. GUIs can be used in computers, hand-held devices such as MP3 players, portable media players or gaming devices, household appliances and...

 (GUI) operating systems, such as the Win32 console

Win32 console

Win32 console is a text user interface implementation within the system of Windows API, which runs console applications. A Win32 console has a screen buffer and an input buffer, and is available both as a window or in text mode screen, with switching back and forth available via Alt-Enter...

 in Microsoft Windows

Microsoft Windows

Microsoft Windows is a series of operating systems produced by Microsoft.Microsoft introduced an operating environment named Windows on November 20, 1985 as an add-on to MS-DOS in response to the growing interest in graphical user interfaces . Microsoft Windows came to dominate the world's personal...

, the Terminal in Mac OS X

Mac OS X

Mac OS X is a series of Unix-based operating systems and graphical user interfaces developed, marketed, and sold by Apple Inc. Since 2002, has been included with all new Macintosh computer systems...

, and xterm

Xterm

In computing, xterm is the standard terminal emulator for the X Window System. A user can have many different invocations of xterm running at once on the same display, each of which provides independent input/output for the process running in it .xterm originated prior to the X Window System...

 in Unix. A user typically interacts with a console application using only a keyboard

Computer keyboard

In computing, a keyboard is a typewriter-style keyboard, which uses an arrangement of buttons or keys, to act as mechanical levers or electronic switches...

 and display screen

Computer display

A monitor or display is an electronic visual display for computers. The monitor comprises the display device, circuitry, and an enclosure...

, as opposed to GUI applications, which normally require the use of a mouse

Mouse (computing)

In computing, a mouse is a pointing device that functions by detecting two-dimensional motion relative to its supporting surface. Physically, a mouse consists of an object held under one of the user's hands, with one or more buttons...

 or other pointing device

Pointing device

A pointing device is an input interface that allows a user to input spatial data to a computer...

. Many console applications such as command line interpreters are command line tools, but numerous Text User Interface

Text user interface

TUI short for: Text User Interface or Textual User Interface , is a retronym that was coined sometime after the invention of graphical user interfaces, to distinguish them from text-based user interfaces...

 (TUI) programs also exist.

As the speed and ease-of-use of GUI applications have improved over time, the use of console applications has greatly diminished, but not disappeared. Some users simply prefer console based applications, while some organizations still rely on existing console applications to handle key data processing tasks.

The generation of console applications is kept as a feature of modern programming environments such as Visual Studio and the .NET Framework

.NET Framework

The .NET Framework is a software framework that runs primarily on Microsoft Windows. It includes a large library and supports several programming languages which allows language interoperability...

 on Microsoft Windows because it greatly simplifies the learning process of a new programming language by removing the complexity of a graphical user interface (see an example in the C Sharp article).

For data processing tasks and computer administration, these programming environments represent the next level of operating system or data processing control after scripting

Scripting language

A scripting language, script language, or extension language is a programming language that allows control of one or more applications. "Scripts" are distinct from the core code of the application, as they are usually written in a different language and are often created or at least modified by the...

. If an application is only going to be run by the programmer himself and/or a few colleagues, there may be no need for a pretty graphical user interface, leaving the application leaner, faster and easier to maintain.

Console based applications

The following list contains a small selection of console based applications:

• Lynx
  Lynx (web browser)
  Lynx is a text-based web browser for use on cursor-addressable character cell terminals and is very configurable.-Usage:Browsing in Lynx consists of highlighting the chosen link using cursor keys, or having all links on a page numbered and entering the chosen link's number. Current versions support...
  
   — web browser
  Web browser
  A web browser is a software application for retrieving, presenting, and traversing information resources on the World Wide Web. An information resource is identified by a Uniform Resource Identifier and may be a web page, image, video, or other piece of content...
  
  
• Irssi
  Irssi
  Irssi is an IRC client program for Linux, Microsoft Windows, and Mac OS X. It was originally written by Timo Sirainen, and released under the terms of the GNU General Public License in January 1999.-Features:...
  
   — IRC client
• Alpine
  Alpine (e-mail client)
  Alpine is a free software email client developed at the University of Washington.Alpine 1.0 was publicly released on December 20, 2007.The name "Alpine" stands for Alternatively Licensed Program for Internet News and Email....
  
   — e-mail client
  E-mail client
  An email client, email reader, or more formally mail user agent , is a computer program used to manage a user's email.The term can refer to any system capable of accessing the user's email mailbox, regardless of it being a mail user agent, a relaying server, or a human typing on a terminal...
  
  
• Mutt
  Mutt (e-mail client)
  Mutt is a text-based email client for Unix-like systems. It was originally written by Michael Elkins in 1995 and released under the GNU General Public License version 2 or any later version....
  
   — e-mail client
  E-mail client
  An email client, email reader, or more formally mail user agent , is a computer program used to manage a user's email.The term can refer to any system capable of accessing the user's email mailbox, regardless of it being a mail user agent, a relaying server, or a human typing on a terminal...
  
  
• Midnight Commander
  Midnight Commander
  GNU Midnight Commander is a free cross-platform orthodox file manager and a clone of Norton Commander originally created by Miguel de Icaza.Midnight Commander is licensed under the terms of the GNU General Public License.-Design:...
  
   — file manager
  File manager
  A file manager or file browser is a computer program that provides a user interface to work with file systems. The most common operations performed on files or groups of files are: create, open, edit, view, print, play, rename, move, copy, delete, search/find, and modify file attributes, properties...
  
  
• nano
  Nano (text editor)
  nano is a text editor for Unix-like computing systems or operating environments using a command line interface. It emulates the Pico text editor, part of the Pine email client, and also provides additional functionality....
  
   — text editor
  Text editor
  A text editor is a type of program used for editing plain text files.Text editors are often provided with operating systems or software development packages, and can be used to change configuration files and programming language source code....
  
  
• Music on Console
  Music on Console
  Music On Console is an ncurses-based console audio player for Linux/UNIX written by Damian Pietras. It is designed to be powerful and easy to use, with a command structure and window layout inspired by the Midnight Commander console file manager...
  
   — audio player
  Audio player
  Audio player refers to a device or application that is capable of playback of audio data. In the strict sense of the term any device capable of audio playback falls under this category, although usually only digital equipment or software is meant....
  
  
• cmus
  Cmus
  cmus is a small and fast console audio player for Unix-like operating systems.cmus is distributed under the terms of the GNU General Public License and operates exclusively through a text-only interface, built with ncurses....
  
   — audio player
  Audio player
  Audio player refers to a device or application that is capable of playback of audio data. In the strict sense of the term any device capable of audio playback falls under this category, although usually only digital equipment or software is meant....
  
  

See also

• Text-based (computing)
• Box drawing characters
  Box drawing characters
  Box drawing characters, also known as line drawing characters, or pseudographics, are widely used in text user interfaces to draw various frames and boxes...
  
  
• Shell (computing)
  Shell (computing)
  A shell is a piece of software that provides an interface for users of an operating system which provides access to the services of a kernel. However, the term is also applied very loosely to applications and may include any software that is "built around" a particular component, such as web...