I'm having a hard time imagining an easier text-based interface to an RDBMS than the command line client. For things I do frequently -- backup a database, dump just the schema, export a view as CSV -- I write shell scripts around psql or the mysql CLI. You can use command-line parameters and hide the psql options and commands that you don't want to look up over and over. Obviously you could do the same thing with other tools if you don't like sh/bash scripting.