Differences between dpkg,apt,aptitude & synaptic

[ShirishAg75]

Hi all,
As far as I understand to date, dpkg is the back-end while apt,aptitude & synaptic are the front-ends to it. http://img428.imageshack.us/img428/4425/dpkgitsfrontends9ua.th.jpg (http://img428.imageshack.us/my.php?image=dpkgitsfrontends9ua.jpg)
Q1.Can somebody compare between the 3 & tell which is better in terms of responsiveness, memory resources & usability. Atleast for me synaptic takes quite a bit of time to launch.
Q2. Are there any other front-ends which I don't know about which could be better?

[rjwood]

I find the command line the quickest. synaptic is great for finding apts and installing as well. aptitude is a little more complcated to me but, then again I don't use it. Hope this helps. good luck