The Whirlwind computer at MIT was the first "real-time" computer, and arguably the FirstGraphicalUserInterface. But there was apparently no keyboard connected to it. So what was the first CommandLineInterface?

The VannevarBush -> DougEngelbart (XeroxParc) -> Mac/Windows/KDE/GNOME+ history of GraphicalUserInterface''''''s is so well known, it seemed odd that the first instance of a CLI interface goes unremarked in so many websites on computer history.

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GeneralElectric's Multics was the first shell [http://www.multicians.org/shell.html]

Interactions with mainframe systems via a console typewriter would fall under the CLI classification. How far before the CDC 1604 does the console typewriter go back?
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When did people first edit and move files by command line as a matter of course?

''There was interactive control of computer systems long before there were random access files, which this definition implies a need for. Do commands to rewind, mount, and unload tape files count?''

Sure, for the "move" part of "edited and moved." But obviously the "files" bit is a red herring. We're not talking about interactive control, we're talking about a command line. Text in front of user's eyes, user types a command, hits return/enter/whatever, new text appears perhaps showing results of command.
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1960s

People were using PDP-8s at home long before the Altair.  In fact, Xerox PARC
had personal computers with mice and windows on ethernets with file servers and
laser printers before the Altair.  Unix predates CP/M, and Unix was preceded
by a lot of time-sharing operating systems, each of which had a command
line interface.

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CategoryUserInterface