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Ask HN: Interesting TUIs (text user interfaces), maybe forgotten ones?
121–130 of 299 posts
Re: Ask HN: Interesting TUIs (text user interfaces), maybe forgotten ones?
#122The original Oberon tiled interface where commands and menus are text that you run, that generate more text. This still exists in blackbox framework oberon/f which embeds text commands in documents. Personally I like the workspace like text UI more than terminals and repls. In a workspace commands are retained, and output persists, they don't fly away but remain on the virtual screens..
> This still exists in blackbox framework oberon/f
The Blackbox framework has a Windows GUI and is quite different from the Oberon System v1 and v2. Starting with v3 and the active object system (AOS), the Oberon System had also a GUI, even with a window manager. But Wirth went back to the original TUI in his FPGA based Project Oberon System (see https://www.projectoberon.net/); here is a version or this system which runs on all platforms: https://github.com/rochus-keller/OberonSystem.
Re: Ask HN: Interesting TUIs (text user interfaces), maybe forgotten ones?
#123If you are in the US, pick a slow day and chat to the customer service people at Lowes or Costco. Both stores use TUI interfaces for their instore service apps, and boy are they fast with them. They reserve GUI things for the self service point of sale systems and keep the TUI for cases where speed matters. I suspect that these apps might once have been mainframe hosted (in other words, screen-oriented, with the PC t…
I've seen those at Costco stores also.
Whereas in indie coffee shops they use a Square tablet and in Apple stores the store people just use iPhones with special cases. Best Buy or Walgreens uses POS tablets with a relatively ugly GUI.
Legacy apps never die. Charles Schwab might use mainframes while Robinhood won't but Schwab won't move off because it's too hard for an established firm. Same with Costco TUIs.
Re: Ask HN: Interesting TUIs (text user interfaces), maybe forgotten ones?
#124In stark contrast to most GNU/*nix tools, I really liked MS-DOS's edit.com text editor. Unlike emacs or vim or even nano, it didn't have a bunch of invisible shortcut keys, just a Windows-like drop-down menu system (but rendered in DOS). You could easily browse through the menu hierarchy, but still memorize certain shortcuts that you often use (just like Windows). In later versions you could even use the mouse to sel…
https://os.ghalkes.nl/tilde/index.html
Tilde is a great EDIT.COM/Borland style IDE clone for Linux. It even has mouse support via remote Terminal.
Re: Ask HN: Interesting TUIs (text user interfaces), maybe forgotten ones?
#125I don’t know if you can find it running anywhere, but the fox pro database (before the Microsoft acquisition and turning “Visual”) was really easy to use.
You could build a relational database and lookup and entry forms for an app all in a tui.
Re: Ask HN: Interesting TUIs (text user interfaces), maybe forgotten ones?
#126This does not necessarily deserve to be imitated, but it is an experience that definitely stood out in my memory in how unusual it was: the dsmc backup utility. The tool boggled me enough at the time that I wrote about it on my weblog:
https://www.unix-ag.uni-kl.de/~guenther/unix-tools-for-real-...
Re: Ask HN: Interesting TUIs (text user interfaces), maybe forgotten ones?
#127tvterm: A Turbo Vision based terminal emulator: https://github.com/magiblot/tvterm
Re: Ask HN: Interesting TUIs (text user interfaces), maybe forgotten ones?
#128I worked somewhere about 18 years ago that was a TUI for the call center staff, and it kinda made sense. A few keystrokes and the info you needed was there, no "fluff" or clicking around the place, just type in what the customer said, tab, and done.
I wouldn't be surprised if it was still in use now.
Re: Ask HN: Interesting TUIs (text user interfaces), maybe forgotten ones?
#129As a sound and music computing person, I rarely used tui before although I use cli tools often, e.g. SoX. I usually use Audacity to record on Mac. But then I realized I wanted a tool that could quickly open and record inspiration, and that's when TUI came into play: I decided to write my own custom tool called asak (audio Swiss Army Knife) [1]
This way I can quickly record on Mac, with some interaction, and of course, since this is Rust and ratatui [2], this tool should also be cross-platform.
Re: Ask HN: Interesting TUIs (text user interfaces), maybe forgotten ones?
#130Slartboz is my real-time action adventure Rogue-like set in Normerika 2100 CE after democracy collapse and climate catastrophe. Written in Golang. Uses ncurses for visuals and VLC for sound and music. I try to push the bounds on whats possible and what you'd expect from a Terminal-based TUI game.