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Why TUIs are back

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Re: Why TUIs are back

#161

Post by ctippett »

qudat wrote: post #62

I think if you look purely at the numbers, the real reason TUIs are popular is claude code, everything else is background noise compared to it. What originally got me excited to build TUIs was the concept of delivering apps over the wire via SSH. SSH apps resemble a browser in that way: no local installs required. It's a major reason why I enjoy hacking on https://pico.sh -- deploying the TUI requires zero user invol…

I'm still motivated to adopt a TUI application in lieu of a pure CLI or GUI because of the ability to use it over SSH.

Re: Why TUIs are back

#162

Post by jeremyjh »

cassepipe wrote: post #155
tuvix wrote: post #143

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not sure if this is bad form but i’ve always loved using jk for escape. It feels so natural to roll your index and middle fingers to get back to normal mode. I agree, too, besides reminding myself to use numbers before movement commands there was really nothing that felt super hard about vim. It almost disappointed me, I always heard the jokes about not being able to quit it!

Yes but jk does not work in other contexts (shell vi modes at least for me) and it's actually to have Escape closer to home to quickly get out of a situation To be fair I mostly use `/` + (n/N) + Enter with `incsearch` on (by default in nvim), I feel it's really the superior way to move around and it has deprecated a lot of my vim-fu. In the same way, apart from occasinal `ciw` (or other text-objects), I do most of m…

It works in bash and zsh at least.

Re: Why TUIs are back

#163

Post by jeremyjh »

cassepipe wrote: post #156
tern wrote: post #141

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've yet to come across something with vim bindings that lacks a .vimrc where you can map 'jk'. Either way, switching back to ESC is as annoying as it is in the first place.

Well I have given at least one example. Do you not use bash/zsh/fish/nushell vi modes ?

Do you not use web search to verify assumptions ?

Re: Why TUIs are back

#164

Post by pocksuppet »

allthetime wrote: post #22
dbish wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’m relatively certain it’s just this at the end of the day. Everything I see people doing in their custom built TUIs or claude/codex CLI can be done, likely even easier, in a simplified IDE or easier to scan UI, but it feels nice/cool/cyberpunk/work-like to look like you’re doing more. Everyone will have a “reasonable” explanation though for why they have to stay in the terminal even when they aren’t really coding a…

It is much easier to quickly generate a usable tui for simple monitoring and management than a usable gui. Go + lipgloss + bubble tea and a single prompt will give you whatever you need in a minute or two - much faster to compile and no platform specific issues. I can’t speak for anyone else, but I do a lot of work in the terminal still and I’d much rather stay in that context then open up yet another window

This used to not be the case - we've regressed. In the distant past you could just drag a couple of widgets onto a form and update them from a timer.

Re: Why TUIs are back

#165

Post by worik »

spankalee wrote: post #121

I really don't get terminal UIs that try to rebuild GUI-like functionality. Don't we think that computer interfaces should get better? We're not limited to a grid of characters to pretend to draw lines and shapes with anymore. You can't even display an image in a terminal without a non-standard terminal like Kitty or iTerm. It's just a shame that we don't have a great cross-platform, streamed, UI system. The web is g…

i am experimenting with TUI/GUI.

My motivation is avoiding all the piles and piles of extra software dependencies that X and/or Wayland bring in.

In addition (but might only be relevant in my niche platform) is that Wayland is buggy and X is deprecated and unmaintained making making the GUI work there a constant struggle.

Time will tell if it is an improvement

Re: Why TUIs are back

#166

Post by logickkk1 »

tptacek wrote: post #30

The tide is going to turn on this in the second half of 2026. There have always been nerds who just love TUIs, and still read their email in Mutt. But I think the subtext of this article is right, that TUIs are back because of how much of a pain UI development is. But that's changed drastically in the last few months. I spent the weekend doing SwiftUI stuff with Claude, with a lot of success. It's going to get much e…

if ai makes native rewrites cheap, "write once run anywhere" matters a lot less. tuis stick around for dev workflows, not for shipping to users.

Re: Why TUIs are back

#167

Post by tonyarkles »

whartung wrote: post #128
spankalee wrote: post #121

I really don't get terminal UIs that try to rebuild GUI-like functionality. Don't we think that computer interfaces should get better? We're not limited to a grid of characters to pretend to draw lines and shapes with anymore. You can't even display an image in a terminal without a non-standard terminal like Kitty or iTerm. It's just a shame that we don't have a great cross-platform, streamed, UI system. The web is g…

This is because of the failure of the modern GUI environment. They want a GUI, but, instead, they have to resort to something like this. A GUI in a TUI. They want something portable. They want something that can run remotely. They want something they can run more safely than having to expose a socket. They don't want to have to bring up an entire desktop. Rootless windows are effectively dead. That leaves web interfa…

> That's not so easy today, and no one is running remote X anyway.

I was quite recently, but even then remote X is missing a really big usability piece: keeping a long-running application open on the host and periodically connecting to it from a remote node (concretely: connecting to my server from my laptop). VNC/RDP/etc all do this at the desktop level, but they're pretty mediocre experience-wise.

tmux gives me this for terminal applications without really any compromises. I run tmux for local terminals as well as remote terminals; the hotkeys are all deep muscle memory at this point. It just works.

Re: Why TUIs are back

#168

Post by [deleted] »

bbkane wrote: post #45
giancarlostoro wrote: post #32

Because nobody is investing in native UI development. Electron is proof that if there were a simple to use GUI stack that companies would adopt it.

Contrary to what the article says ("but Google gave up on the project before a real product was launched"), I think Flutter work continues and adoption is increasing

[deleted]

Re: Why TUIs are back

#169

Post by airstrike »

bbkane wrote: post #45
giancarlostoro wrote: post #32

Because nobody is investing in native UI development. Electron is proof that if there were a simple to use GUI stack that companies would adopt it.

Contrary to what the article says ("but Google gave up on the project before a real product was launched"), I think Flutter work continues and adoption is increasing

I don't really want Dart tbh

Re: Why TUIs are back

#170

Post by saratogacx »

cassepipe wrote: post #37

> The hardcore, moved to vim or emacs, trading immediate feedback and higher usability for the steepest learning curve I’ve seen The only hard part about vim is to be forced to strecth the finger up to Escape for what is essentially the most essential function in a modal editor: Going back to command mode. The ideal workflow is do a quick edit and go back to command ("normal") mode instantly. The fact that Escape is…

Weirdly enough I actually like that Esc is so far away and it is not for efficiency but for ergonomics. It forces me to lift my hand up and reposition it away from the home row and back so I'm forced to move muscles that would otherwise just wait around and collect RSI points. I tend to use the arrow keys often as well for the same reason on the other hand (although I do still use hjkl quite a bit still)
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