Why TUIs are back - Hacker News

Posted by rickcarlino 7 days ago

Why TUIs are back(wiki.alcidesfonseca.com)

422 points | 420 commentspage 9

tiffanyh 6 days ago|

CLI

Dumb question and slightly off topic, but is there a reason why so many AI tools are CLIs … as opposed to just an API or another interface?

I feel like I’m missing the obvious in why there feels like an explosion of CLI tools lately, related to AI.

fg137 6 days ago||

Only for software engineers who are already familiar with terminals. Most non tech people I know and in my company absolutely hate TUI. Even a fraction of software developers who spend most their time outside terminals (especially those that are on Windows and/or use specialized tools/IDEs) prefer to avoid TUIs as well.

Jach 6 days ago||

And for those of us devs, they never really went anywhere. vim was the most popular editor on HN 15, 10 years ago, still very popular 5 years ago, still popular today.. and that's just an editor, all the other tools like top and its descendents never went away.. I'll believe "TUIs are back" or in some kind of uprise when I notice my non-developer friends and family using them for anything. The most dominant UI today is the mobile app, that's not changing. Limited to professional use (i.e. doing work for someone) and not all use, TUIs aren't touching either web apps or native GUIs either.

zozbot234 6 days ago||

Many "non-technical" folks who have interacted with virtual 3270 terminals for all sorts of mission critical tasks would disagree sharply with that assessment. And those are essentially TUIs.

fg137 6 days ago||

Do they use it for generic computing stuff, like, reading and replying to emails, or specific tasks?

zozbot234 6 days ago||

Yup.

refulgentis 7 days ago||

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.

nickdothutton 6 days ago||

My terminal has not been ensh*ttified. I used the Internet for work, for knowledge, more than I use it for entertainment. One of the reasons I like TUIs.

alex_young 6 days ago||

CLI. Wtf is a TUI? LLMs say it has some to do with interactivity in a menu or something, but believe me, we had this all in the 80’s. Nothing new here, but the truth is the CLI is better faster and cheaper. Pick all three.

wren6991 6 days ago|

CLI is "run a command, get output, drop you back at your shell prompt". TUI is a full-screen interface inside the terminal which you stay inside of, no longer interacting with your shell.

alex_young 6 days ago||

I think that’s what we used to call a program. Things like vi and wordstar seem like they’d qualify.

wren6991 6 days ago||

Yes I agree, something like vi or GNU nano is a great example of a TUI. The meaning is drifting a bit but I think the distinction is useful: a CLI program is one that you can invoke from a Makefile.

CyberBlaed 6 days ago||

I’d love it for my Mac if my wall paper can be a TUI app of my choice.

Interact as needed, matrix screen saver when idle to prevent burn in.

I don’t see terminal apps as heavy at all…

How to make them a wallpaper thats interactive I wonder…?

Funny if I just search it… PlashApp by Sinde, Set to Termix docker and BOOM :)

bellowsgulch 6 days ago||

A reverse shibboleth for someone who does zero professional design work is taking a screenshot of differing corner radii in macOS.

Don’t fall for this.

ricardobeat 6 days ago|

Why? All the great designers I've worked with would have shivers shooting up their spine after looking at that screenshot.

xupybd 6 days ago||

Luke Smith was too early on this.

frou_dh 6 days ago|

There's something disgusting about the use of characters for graphs/charts on a bitmapped monitor. Trust nerds to find a way to make stuff ugly!

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