A good (standardised, consistent) mouse-driven interface means one can use an unfamiliar program without reading any documentation first. This, I think, explain

A good (standardised, consistent) mouse-driven interface means one can use an unfamiliar program without reading any documentation first. This, I think, explains the popularity of the mouse (along with its low cost relative to touch-screens and other similar input devices). But giving a program input in this way can be very slow. The experienced user can't get much faster than the novice. A mouse, of course, is a good input method when it makes sense for gestures in 2 dimensions to control something. (Hmm, that is rather tautologous.) E.g. drawing (but then a graphics tablet is probably better for this, but more expensive). With a text-based interface, one must read and learn before one can use an unfamiliar program. But giving the program input can then typically be much faster, and the program can be easily scriptable.