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Why TUIs are back

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Re: Why TUIs are back

#11

Post by nickjj »

I do like CLI tools and TUIs but in the article it mentions Gnome style apps don't fit the look. That sounds like a limitation of Omarchy.

It's not too bad to theme GTK apps and have them all look a consistent way. For example I use Tokyonight Moon and Gruvbox and they both have GTK themes that look great for Firefox, Thunar, GIMP, LibreOffice and more. I don't use Omarchy but here's a few screenshots https://x.com/nickjanetakis/status/2037125261657883061/photo....

Nothing fancy was done on my end, just installed the specific GTK themes. They even support live reloading because GTK's tooling supports it, my dotfiles at https://github.com/nickjj/dotfiles handle all of it for you. I still prefer TUIs but you can have nice looking GUI apps for when you want them.

Re: Why TUIs are back

#12

Post by nrmitchi »

abhinavsharma wrote: post #3

To me it's just that they're great for people who live in a terminal - No distractions from visual content - Extreme efficiency with keyboard - AIs can code them up quickly. It used to be a total pain

> - AIs can code them up quickly. It used to be a total pain

As far my opinion goes, this is biggest (and really only) reason.

Re: Why TUIs are back

#13

Post by metaltyphoon »

lispisok wrote: post #8

My cynical take why TUIs are back is because people operating in the terminal became a signal that you were competent and once people figured that out everybody started doing it. The reason people were operating in the terminal is lost of them but hey it makes you look like a 1337 hacker. It's the same thing with side projects of past decades. People who had side projects cared about the craft for more than a paychec…

> My cynical take why TUIs are back is because people operating in the terminal became a signal that you were competent and once people figured that out everybody started doing it

Are you saying GUI "the real deal"?

Re: Why TUIs are back

#14

Post by shevy-java »

One huge advantage that the commandline + TUIs have is ... speed.

I get more things done, in most cases, than via a GUI. In a way a TUI is a GUI of course, but with the focus on keyboard use and inputting instructions/commands. Most GUIs seem to be centered around keyboard AND mouse and then try to make things convenient here for those operations, such as drag-and-drop via the mouse.

Re: Why TUIs are back

#15

Post by beej71 »

The best thing about TUIs is that they're so fast. They launch fast, run fast, and you use them fast. There's a learning curve for the bazillion hotkeys, because all it is is hot keys, but when you have it, you just fly.

I've been reverting more and more: mutt (mail), newsboat (RSS), amfora (gemini protocol), gurk (Signal), chawan (web), and even trn (Usenet). My RAM usage is tiny. Everything is quick.

GUIs should take a page from the TUI playbook and consider making the app keyboard-first. Nothing is more frustrating than a missing hotkey.

Re: Why TUIs are back

#16

Post by refulgentis »

TL;DR, not from the article: Because Claude Code was a small team experiment done months after Claude Sonnet 3.7 had support for file editing; a bunch of companies had to fast follow; and the path of least resistance / collaborative work between PM and dev and design is copying, and companies are companies, they prefer money and competition over patiently waiting for X00 people to decide on a vision and deliver it.

I think it's important to note this because it's not great. Either I'm having a fever dream, or, someone will GUI this stuff and it'll be a gamechanger.

Re: Why TUIs are back

#17

Post by mbreese »

abhinavsharma wrote: post #3

To me it's just that they're great for people who live in a terminal - No distractions from visual content - Extreme efficiency with keyboard - AIs can code them up quickly. It used to be a total pain

I think the corollary to this is that there are more people comfortable with living in a terminal. TUIs are more common now that there is an increased audience for them.

Re: Why TUIs are back

#18

Post by gorjusborg »

The real reason TUIs are back is not one reason, but a host of reasons.

The biggest current reason is fashion. Tools like Claude Code did it, and while they actually had good reasons to run in the terminal, the tools' popularity and wildly different look, especially to non-terminal-native users became a signal of some positive sort.

I don't believe that any of the rationale posed in the article is a popular reason developers are using.

Re: Why TUIs are back

#19

Post by ohnei »

The TUIs I've looked at seem to be largely NPM dependent? Bizarre that agents apparently don't have time to rewrite themselves in something that isn't a security tire fire. It kind of makes me assume that all this agents taking over stuff is from people working at garbage-pivot-garbage startups that don't really have to worry about any consequences but not being fast enough.
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