It reminds me of when I did my Master's Degree. I was doing Microsoft #SQL_Server through their GUI interface while also taking some MySQL courses through the local community college.

Using the GUI, I'd be in the process of constructing a query and need to look at some information ... for example the structure of a table ... in order to complete the query. In the GUI, everything was modal dialog boxes, so it was *back out of everything* then look for needed data, then go through the steps to get back where I previously was, and enter the query with the acquired information.

Using the mysql commandline, it was ... enter a query to view the table and / or database schema, write your query. If necessary, open a 2nd window and use one for writing long queries and the other for exploration which helps write those queries.

Yes, our web dev instruction was corporation centered, so we used Java Servlets and JSPs in Apache #Tomcat on #Windows ... and SQL Server as the database. I think we used #Apache HTTP Server(also on Windows), but it is possible we did do something with Microsoft #IIS.