Doing anything in the terminal, git, etc multiplies my learning curve in attempting to quickly develop an app using CodeIgniter. I realize the need for a Javascript framework and would like to use AngularJS - is there any way around the terminal?
All you need to do is to download the AngularJS source files (.js files) and get coding. I am new to it too and am fairly impressed with it. However it seems to me that is is designed for different things than CodeIgniter.
Angular JS basically moves your MVC from the back end to the front end, my limited experience tells me that it is for simpler apps than what CodeIgniter would be for. You can certainly still have some logic in your MVC back end, but the idea is that Angular becomes the application and you use a back end primarily for data storage.
There may be a way to mix the two together by making limited scope Angular pages that are worked within a superstructure of the CodeIgniter MVC, but I have not figured this out yet.
AngularJS can certainly work with Code Igniter, and you don't need to use the terminal for either.
You're probably going to want to write a RESTful API with Code Igniter that AngularJS can communicate with. Check out this article for RESTful services with CI: http://net.tutsplus.com/tutorials/php/working-with-restful-services-in-codeigniter-2/ (a little old, but the basic concept is the same)
Then, with AngularJS, you'd use $http to make requests back to the API you wrote with CI: http://docs.angularjs.org/api/ng.$http