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The general problem with these kinds of TUI apps isn't the shortcuts but the complete lack of discoverability of the commands and their shortcuts. The expectati

by sime2009 6y ago

The general problem with these kinds of TUI apps isn't the shortcuts but the complete lack of discoverability of the commands and their shortcuts. The expectation that people have to go and the read the documentation and then memorise the shortcuts is ridiculous. GUIs for decades have demonstrated practical ways of making commands discoverable and also teaching users the keyboard shortcuts. All without having to ask people to RTFM. It is a pity that so many TUI apps haven't learnt the same lessons. There is a reason why Nano became such a popular default editor for email. The shortcuts are printed at the bottom of the screen(!) I hope more TUI apps pick up on the idea of the command palette though. It is a fast and keyboard friendly way of improving usability.

renox 6y ago
Good GUIs can be discoverable yes, but what about about Windows XP's file explorer shift right-click option (to make reappear 'Open with..'), Windows 10 right click on the 'start' menu? Do you find these things discoverable? The truth is that being pretty/fashionable matter more than discoverability..
- ropeladder 6y ago
  It's not about being flashy. Those Windows commands are hidden precisely because they are for power users and Microsoft presumably thinks that average users don't want or need them. Which is a whole different can of worms.
  - renox 6y ago
    These commands should be also provided behind an 'advanced' submenu which would make them both discoverable AND not used by default by normal users.
spookthesunset 6y ago
If tmux or screen had two rows worth of UX like nano does... it’d use them way more. I see the value of those programs but they are so not core to my workflow that I can never bother to remember the keyboard shortcuts. Ubuntu has some wrapper for tmux called byobu that does exactly this. It is the only time I really enjoy using this sort of tool. https://www.byobu.org/ https://www.byobu.org/
ufmace 6y ago
I see it as a kind of trade-off. Good GUI apps do make it much easier for commands to be discoverable to new users of that application. What they sacrifice is generally smooth and rapid keyboard control and more sophisticated composable commands. To make use of that, you pretty much have to be a power user and spend a lot of time drilling keyboard commands and how they can chain together into your head. Once you do that though, you can do a ton of advanced things really fast while hardly even thinking about it.

renox 6y ago

Good GUIs can be discoverable yes, but what about about Windows XP's file explorer shift right-click option (to make reappear 'Open with..'), Windows 10 right click on the 'start' menu? Do you find these things discoverable? The truth is that being pretty/fashionable matter more than discoverability..

ropeladder 6y ago
It's not about being flashy. Those Windows commands are hidden precisely because they are for power users and Microsoft presumably thinks that average users don't want or need them. Which is a whole different can of worms.
- renox 6y ago
  These commands should be also provided behind an 'advanced' submenu which would make them both discoverable AND not used by default by normal users.

spookthesunset 6y ago

If tmux or screen had two rows worth of UX like nano does... it’d use them way more. I see the value of those programs but they are so not core to my workflow that I can never bother to remember the keyboard shortcuts. Ubuntu has some wrapper for tmux called byobu that does exactly this. It is the only time I really enjoy using this sort of tool. https://www.byobu.org/ https://www.byobu.org/

ufmace 6y ago

I see it as a kind of trade-off. Good GUI apps do make it much easier for commands to be discoverable to new users of that application. What they sacrifice is generally smooth and rapid keyboard control and more sophisticated composable commands. To make use of that, you pretty much have to be a power user and spend a lot of time drilling keyboard commands and how they can chain together into your head. Once you do that though, you can do a ton of advanced things really fast while hardly even thinking about it.