[watersb]

> launch any application from the terminal

I am not sure I understand the issue here, but is there some reason that 'open -a "ApplicationName"' does not work for you?

I can think of some things; I haven't tried but the app developer would need to provide an API to handle command-line options. Sometimes I examine an application's Scripting dictionary via the Script Editor or Automator, but in general I am not writing big shell scripts to drive applicaitons.

[mprev]

With Ubuntu, and other Linuxen I've used, it's a matter of typing "firefox" or whatever the app is called. So, sure, I can type the extra but what I like about the Linux world is that there's no distinction between terminal and GUI apps when it comes to launching from the terminal.