alt Hacker News> It's portable
Not really?
> it's fast
It's not - most terminals are ridiculously slow, and each TUI framework requires its own hacks to do partial "repaints" using ANSI escapes, because clearing and redrawing the entire screen (yes, just a screen of monospace text!) is unworkable.
> it's discoverable
With no ergonomic way to build a menu bar, display hints/tooltips, or even support modified keyboard shortcuts well across platforms? I don’t think it is.
> it's as secure as my shell
Extraordinarily insecure, in other words.
> it's efficient
As above.
Replies
hadlock • today at 4:42 PM
I guess you haven't tried ratatui then. All my cli offer a ratatui dashboard mode, and about 50% of the dashboard mode end up as a status dashboard down the road
> Not really?
It is, everywhere I need it. Never had to change a single line across the various OS/Terms I used. Can't say the same for web apps or even so-called cross-platform GUIs. Been there, done that.
> It's not - most terminals are ridiculously slow, and each TUI framework requires its own hacks to do partial "repaints" using ANSI escapes, because clearing and redrawing the entire screen (yes, just a screen of monospace text!) is unworkable.
I don't care about these details. I care about the app feeling snappy and responsive. It sure does. Again, I wish it was the case for GUIs.
> With no ergonomic way to build a menu bar, display hints/tooltips, or even support modified keyboard shortcuts well across platforms? I don’t think it is.
Discoverable as in "you can start the app and figure it out along the way without prior documentation reading". And we do have hints, menus and what not. Trying to nitpick ?
> Extraordinarily insecure, in other words.
Are you implying the app running from my ssh session is more exposed than a web app or a API endpoint for a GUI app ?
Like all things, TUI is not a panacea and has its place.