First Words

First Words: Shell, Terminal, Prompt, The Shape of a Command.

Updated November 10, 2026

1. Shell, Terminal, Prompt (Novice): The terminal is the window, the shell is the program inside it that runs your commands, and the prompt is the line where the shell waits for the next one.
2. The Shape of a Command (Novice): Almost every command has the same shape, its name, then options that change how it works, then arguments that say what to work on, with spaces between them, quotes around a name that has spaces, and Ctrl+C to stop it.