Interactive Shell Use
Most people use their chosen shell interactively. You'll decide what you want to do (start a word processor, list the directory, perform system administration tasks, and so on) and perform it from a shell. bash does have some nice features that you'll want to explore before you go much further.
I've been accused of being lazy, and to a degree that's true. I don't like typing long command sequences or directory paths into the command line. If I want to traverse six subdirectory levels, I don't want to type every character. I want to type cd and just go there. But the next best thing to a single keystroke is having the shell read my mind (or more accurately, choose intelligently among alternatives)—and it can, in a shell ...
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