text: Don't get me wrong, I really enjoy Neal Stephenson's books.  The historical content he winds into his plots is engaging.  However, I have been working with the micro computer since before the command line.  Neal, you have the title wrong.  In the beginning was the Monitor.  No doubts in my mind.  My right hand is still trained to enter octal codes on a keypad at lightening speed!  The Command line came much later, more like the coalescence of matter in the Universe when clumps of useful things needed some impactful gravity.  The Monitor was there before the clumps and after the octal toggle switches, address load and register load momentary switches.  The Monitor got the human fingers attached to the computer once and for all.   So, 2 stars because the title is just wrong
  