Stop Making TUIs • Hacker News Board

Re: Stop Making TUIs

#21

Post by hombre_fatal » Fri, Aug 21, 2026, 7:37 AM UTC

One of the biggest upsides of TUIs over GUIs is that I can run any number of TUI instances.

Meanwhile a GUI's developer has to decide to grace me with the ability to even open more than one window. "A tabbed interface will be sufficient!" -- yay, I'll never be able to view two screens of info at the same time.

Re: Stop Making TUIs

#22

Post by self_awareness » Fri, Aug 21, 2026, 7:37 AM UTC

Do more TUIs.

People are unable to do good GUIs. The web shows this; completely disregarding any UI guidelines by web people established since 80s is a proof that most people have no idea how to make GUIs.

I don't know how to make a good GUI. That's why I need good templates and strong guidelines, discipline and spend long time on design. Most people don't do that.

TUI is much, much easier. It's also possible to do bad TUIs, but it's easier to do a good TUI than to do an average GUI.

Re: Stop Making TUIs

#23

Post by AtHeartEngineer » Fri, Aug 21, 2026, 7:37 AM UTC

JoshTriplett wrote: post #10

You know what's awesome about TUIs? They live in a tab in my terminal. 95% of the time, my system has three windows open: terminal, browser, Signal. Please, make more TUIs and web apps, so they can live in my terminal or my browser.

and music

Re: Stop Making TUIs

#24

Post by duskdozer » Fri, Aug 21, 2026, 7:39 AM UTC

boxed wrote: post #20

JoshTriplett wrote: post #10

You know what's awesome about TUIs? They live in a tab in my terminal. 95% of the time, my system has three windows open: terminal, browser, Signal. Please, make more TUIs and web apps, so they can live in my terminal or my browser.

Couldn't you then just vibe code some window manager app that throws a bunch of your stuff into a tabbed window? Seems like the same thing.

How would that be any better though?

Re: Stop Making TUIs

#25

Post by FabCH » Fri, Aug 21, 2026, 7:39 AM UTC

Counterpoint: Build more TUIs in Rust using Ratatui: https://ratatui.rs/

Why? Because just look at the examples on that page.

Re: Stop Making TUIs

#26

Post by takluyver » Fri, Aug 21, 2026, 7:40 AM UTC

danpalmer wrote: post #6

jmorenoamor wrote: post #5

No. I like them.

What 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?

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.

Re: Stop Making TUIs

#27

Post by Shank » Fri, Aug 21, 2026, 7:40 AM UTC

0x457 wrote: post #3

Surac wrote: post #2

TUI is a kind of self defense. big corps create and kill gui frameworks faster that one can learn them. Browser based ui is a real waste of resources (and also evolve in a absurd pace). The Console is a last resort to write small (understandable) gui that work on many platforms.

Huh? Qt, GTK, Cocoa (AppKit and UIKit), bunch of other linux friendly gui frameworks been around for a long time, even Flutter is still around. What is being killed?

Apple believes SwiftUI is the future, not AppKit and UIKit/Cocoa.

Re: Stop Making TUIs

#28

Post by jesse_dot_id » Fri, Aug 21, 2026, 7:41 AM UTC

I'm a fan of a TUI, I think because they are usually pretty intuitive out of necessity. I can usually feel the developer's skill level in the user experience.

Re: Stop Making TUIs

#29

Post by zorked » Fri, Aug 21, 2026, 7:41 AM UTC

Haha, no. For a while, many years ago, it seemed TUIs were indeed on the way out, but then they were relived by the awesome work of people who wrote GPU-accelerated terminals, widget libraries, who extended terminals with more colors and the ability to show Unicode and graphics.

I salute you, heros.

Re: Stop Making TUIs

#30

Post by PaulRobinson » Fri, Aug 21, 2026, 7:43 AM UTC

GreenSalem wrote: post #8

Incoherent and far too long . Lists a bunch of things . Fails to make any clear points . Fails to give real reasons for the few claims it makes .

Building software for yourself - and only yourself - is a super-power.

I can see how LLMs help.

I wouldn't want to maintain software for other people entirely vibe coded. I think I might think again about native app development for my own needs, if it's kind of disposable.