alt Hacker NewsWhat do you like about them? I disagree, but so many people seem to like them that I assume I'm missing something. The main one I've heard before is that they work nicely over SSH, but I assume there must be more?
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IMHO the rise of TUIs is heavily correlated with the near-abandonment of professional quality graphical interfaces.
If there was a powerful, information dense, configurable docking/tiling, multi-application-composing GUI framework (all things a good terminal can do) then yes, build everything in that. I’d love to see it.
Until then, TUIs are vastly better than another Electron app or Mac app using UI frameworks that are trying their hardest to look and act like basic phone apps.
Lightweight and can run over ssh are 2 main reasons i like them.
I use the terminal for most things which are not web browsing hence for me it makes sense to prefer TUIs for "lightweight" GUI needs.
I love how I have to configure font size and family only once in the terminal emulator and not for each program/GUI toolkit again.
Of course, there is no way to replace graphical-heavy programs (GIMP, QGIS etc.) with TUIs.
In addition to what other people have said, the terminal interface is cross-platform and very stable, so TUIs need little or no maintenance to keep working.
I don't think TUIs are inherently better but some are simply too good versus the alternative. magit and k9s for example.
I also like them so I can mention some things that spring to mind:
- Some are very good tools that have no clear GUI superiors. Vim, Emacs, Mc for example. GUI wrappers over these don't make them better.
- Efficient, meaning fast and limited in scope so you can learn the whole thing.
- The muscle memory you develop is transferable to any new platform or OS you use.
- Often free and OSS so they can't be taken away, making the muscle memory a long-term investment.
- If you work in the terminal for any other reason there's less context switch.
(other user) in my typical experience:
- keyboard can be used for pretty much everything
- less visually busy (no/less animations, background images/color variations. often close to plain text on plain background)
- more information dense (fewer things hidden behind hamburger menus, modals, drawers, etc)
- more/more easily customizable and documented
- more often can provide data directly into the terminal that I'm working in, so don't need to copy/paste through windows etc
these aren't necessarily impossible for GUI or universally true for TUI, but maybe I would guess just more an artifact of there being types of people who prefer working in the terminal who are then more likely to make TUIs, and I share their preferences more.
A good UI can be text, graphic, voice, etc.
I enjoy the usability and self perceived speed of not having to leave the console or reach the mouse to move a pointer when a cople of key presees is enough.
It's a matter of choice, I know, but I also think there is a genuine case for text over graphics. I see it everyday on businesses that keep old cobol tpvs at the cash, the speed at which the clercks check inventories or perform other crm activities is unmatched to mouse or touch interfaces
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I personally like making (and using) TUIs because:
- They encourage developing simpler, information-dense, and keyboard-driven interfaces, which I tend to prefer in general.
- I find them more fun to write, and less aggravating to maintain and debug, than interfaces built with GUI toolkits.
- Most software I write for personal use is going to be run in both a Linux and Mac OS environment (and a lot of the time on a headless server to boot), and a TUI often has less fuss than other options (at least, IME).
- I think monospaced text in a terminal just looks cool.