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I dont know when it exactly started but I've heard and use this term at least 15 years. CLI != TUI. TUI is more like a "standard" window (GUI) but all text base

I dont know when it exactly started but I've heard and use this term at least 15 years. CLI != TUI. TUI is more like a "standard" window (GUI) but all text based.

kkfx 2y ago
Well... CLI is Command Line Interface, or a classic ./name --options reading output in a terminal and writing options, piping to other tools to tweak the output. It's good for some usages, and for scripting, but not much for event-loop based activities. TUI, Textual User Interface today tend to be a 2D terminal graphic, from ncurses to framebuffer. Classically it's simply a 2D UI based on text, so for instance Plan 9 ACME editor is a TUI since it's graphic but you can write text anywhere creating and changing menus, toolbars etc. I think there is no official Jargon File entry to clarify this, 99% of the time people name TUI an ncurses UI, witch is a debatable since it can be not really usable as text and so as Terminal User Interface, but a CLI is also a terminal user interface.
- zokier 2y ago
  CLIs can be graphical too! One classic example is AutoCAD: > The command line interface provides an important method for controlling AutoCAD. For many users, it is the primary input method. The command line is also used for displaying and selecting command options. https://help.autodesk.com/view/OARX/2024/ENU/?guid=GUID-F14550A6-006F-47ED-AAD0-030E23D86A35 https://help.autodesk.com/view/OARX/2024/ENU/?guid=GUID-F145...
  - kkfx 2y ago
    Very right indeed, maybe then: - GUI :: graphical UI, typically NOT easy to mold by the end users, mostly widget based UIs, as their main characteristic or the user of them is more a consumer than a producer of something; - CLI :: a REPL, typically a terminal, but definitively not only that, their users enter commands, read responses as main characteristic; - TUI :: a 2D UI (typically though it could probably be also a 3D and 4D one) easy to be mold by the end user, the user is both a producer and a consumer as their main characteristic. An WYSIWYG editor is a kind of TUI in that regard, an Emacs buffer is another since in both text can be entered somewhat freely and can became "active" like clickable links. The user read, or consume, but also write, or produce. An ncurses UI should be TUI being text-based and 2D but still lack the user mold part so well... Still unsure how to classify the acronym...
ralferoo 2y ago
I've also never heard this term. Back when text interfaces for mail were the default, but they started getting "fancy" like elm, pine and mutt in the 90s, they were always called curses or ncurses interfaces. When GUIs became a thing, the older things became called text-mode, but I've never encountered TUI before. The only TUI that I'd heard of is the travel company.
- opan 2y ago
  curses and ncurses are specific libraries used while TUI is a more universal term.
  - superkuh 2y ago
    But what does it actually stand for? Terminal user interface? Text user interface? I'm not complaining or saying it shouldn't be used, I'd just never seen it before and my initial searches for TUI were all overloaded with other things.
    - scbrg 2y ago
      > But what does it actually stand for? Terminal user interface? Text user interface? Yes. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Text-based_user_interface https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Text-based_user_interface The Wikipedia page is from 2004, so it's been around a while.

I dont know when it exactly started but I've heard and use this term at least 15 years. CLI != TUI. TUI is more like a "standard" window (GUI) but all text based.

kkfx 2y ago

Well... CLI is Command Line Interface, or a classic ./name --options reading output in a terminal and writing options, piping to other tools to tweak the output. It's good for some usages, and for scripting, but not much for event-loop based activities. TUI, Textual User Interface today tend to be a 2D terminal graphic, from ncurses to framebuffer. Classically it's simply a 2D UI based on text, so for instance Plan 9 ACME editor is a TUI since it's graphic but you can write text anywhere creating and changing menus, toolbars etc. I think there is no official Jargon File entry to clarify this, 99% of the time people name TUI an ncurses UI, witch is a debatable since it can be not really usable as text and so as Terminal User Interface, but a CLI is also a terminal user interface.

zokier 2y ago
CLIs can be graphical too! One classic example is AutoCAD: > The command line interface provides an important method for controlling AutoCAD. For many users, it is the primary input method. The command line is also used for displaying and selecting command options. https://help.autodesk.com/view/OARX/2024/ENU/?guid=GUID-F14550A6-006F-47ED-AAD0-030E23D86A35 https://help.autodesk.com/view/OARX/2024/ENU/?guid=GUID-F145...
- kkfx 2y ago
  Very right indeed, maybe then: - GUI :: graphical UI, typically NOT easy to mold by the end users, mostly widget based UIs, as their main characteristic or the user of them is more a consumer than a producer of something; - CLI :: a REPL, typically a terminal, but definitively not only that, their users enter commands, read responses as main characteristic; - TUI :: a 2D UI (typically though it could probably be also a 3D and 4D one) easy to be mold by the end user, the user is both a producer and a consumer as their main characteristic. An WYSIWYG editor is a kind of TUI in that regard, an Emacs buffer is another since in both text can be entered somewhat freely and can became "active" like clickable links. The user read, or consume, but also write, or produce. An ncurses UI should be TUI being text-based and 2D but still lack the user mold part so well... Still unsure how to classify the acronym...

ralferoo 2y ago

I've also never heard this term. Back when text interfaces for mail were the default, but they started getting "fancy" like elm, pine and mutt in the 90s, they were always called curses or ncurses interfaces. When GUIs became a thing, the older things became called text-mode, but I've never encountered TUI before. The only TUI that I'd heard of is the travel company.

opan 2y ago
curses and ncurses are specific libraries used while TUI is a more universal term.
- superkuh 2y ago
  But what does it actually stand for? Terminal user interface? Text user interface? I'm not complaining or saying it shouldn't be used, I'd just never seen it before and my initial searches for TUI were all overloaded with other things.
  - scbrg 2y ago
    > But what does it actually stand for? Terminal user interface? Text user interface? Yes. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Text-based_user_interface https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Text-based_user_interface The Wikipedia page is from 2004, so it's been around a while.