4 ms·

Ah, wonderful. It even mimics the empty rectangles when a font doesn't contain a glyph... This is neat, but no, stop it. TUIs are an abomination of design that

by imiric 2y ago

Ah, wonderful. It even mimics the empty rectangles when a font doesn't contain a glyph... This is neat, but no, stop it. TUIs are an abomination of design that poorly mimic actually beautiful UIs. They look the way they do because of inherent constraints of the terminal, not because their authors particularly wanted them to look like that. So bringing that design language to a platform that does support rich UIs is artificially limiting what can be done on the web. It will also never truly have the same design as the terminal, unless you also want to avoid having any rich multimedia, interactivity, or use any web functionality introduced after 1995. At that point, your users would be better served by a text-only or Gemini site instead. As an aside, I think TUIs are wrong in most cases. If you're building something like a text editor or process manager, sure, they have their place. Although even then I would argue that they shouldn't mimic the look and feel of GUIs, but be purpose-built for the app in question. But most terminal programs shouldn't use TUIs. They should accept command-line arguments to modify their behavior, run and do what the user asked, and then exit. This is how you make programs adaptable, composable, and scriptable. They can still be made interactive at runtime via a different e.g. "client" program, but forcing the user to manually interact with an interface that mimics GUIs is an awful experience.

varun_ch 2y ago
I think you’re reading too much into it! This seems like a cute design library for eg. a personal blog or a portfolio website. I really doubt the author thinks this is the best design style, it’s just got an aesthetic that it sticks with, which is fun.
- imiric 2y ago
  Haha I suppose you're right. I do get a kick out of similar CSS frameworks that mimic the look of Windows and other OSs. I was just triggered by "beauty of TUIs", but beauty is in the eye of the beholder... :)
rvz 2y ago
Hmm, Not really convinced. I like TUIs and also the aesthetic of them. Much faster to use on a keyboard than point clicking all over the place with a mouse on the screen or typing the long commands and flags and forgetting a single flag and having to typing it once again.
- pfg_ 2y ago
  If you forget a flag, can't you move your cursor and add the flag? No need to type the whole command again
  - wpm 2y ago
    If your terminal is using readline/emacs bindings, Meta + B will go backward one word. Ctrl + a will move the cursor to the beginning of the line. There are of course equivalents if your terminal is configured to use the vi/vim keybinds. On macOS, you can hold Option and click to emulate the correct amount of left or right arrow presses to move the cursor. So, no, you don't need to type the whole command again. I would personally probably hit Ctrl + a and move my cursor forward a few words to where I need to add the flag.
eMPee584 2y ago
TUIs are memory-friendly tools for complex tasks and have a different UX feel (can be more comfortable, clear & informative, accessible) to pure CLI or native/web apps. I for one am extremely happy there's a thriving terminal ecosystem, nowadays with colors, icons (nerdfonts), emojis, mouse support, widget layouts.. even sixels and smooth scrolling..
santiagobasulto 2y ago
> TUIs are an abomination of design that poorly mimic actually beautiful UIs My mother used to have an early "digital company" back in the 90s in Argentina. We are from a small town in the "Patagonia region"[0] and there was only 1 programmer in the whole town. The guy was a huge nerd that had spent some time studying in Buenos Aires. Long story short, my mother hired this kid to build software for him. This is around 1992 so it was all DOS. This guy built a full TUI software with CRUD operation, reporting, "cron jobs" (some stuff that I never understood but would run every night), printing, etc. Until this day I remember the people working at my mother's company how they just FLEW over the software. It was all keyboard and hotkeys. They'd just go back and forth, print stuff, enter data, connect with the Fax machine, all with their keyboard in this black screen full of green, white and orange glyphs. I NEVER found any other software that is SO powerful and efficient and user friendly as TUIs. [0] The "true" Patagonia region in the East of Arg.
- imiric 2y ago
  That's great, but keyboard shortcuts are not exclusive to TUIs. GUIs can be just as powerful in that sense, and most advanced web apps support keyboard navigation. My objection is mainly to the claim that TUIs are beautiful, and to the effort of bringing their design to the web. But this is ultimately down to personal preferences, and others may disagree.
  - santiagobasulto 2y ago
    Yes, GUIs and Web interfaces can support keyboard navigation. But I have NEVER found one fully exploiting this. Linear (ticket tracking app) is maybe the only one that comes to mind as a good alternative, but nowhere close to the fluidity achieved by TUIs. I think the reason is "limitation", if you have to design an app that CAN NOT use a Mouse, you'll be darn sure it'll work well with the keyboard.
  - graemep 2y ago
    Its true in theory, but it does not work well in practice because: 1. Developers have to make an extra effort (and require time) to do it right 2. People are much less likely to learn the keyboard shortcuts If you designed a GUI to be keyboard first then it might work as you say, but I cannot think of any real life examples of that. I think people need to TUI look to push them to use keyboards.

by imiric 2y ago

varun_ch 2y ago

I think you’re reading too much into it! This seems like a cute design library for eg. a personal blog or a portfolio website. I really doubt the author thinks this is the best design style, it’s just got an aesthetic that it sticks with, which is fun.

imiric 2y ago
Haha I suppose you're right. I do get a kick out of similar CSS frameworks that mimic the look of Windows and other OSs. I was just triggered by "beauty of TUIs", but beauty is in the eye of the beholder... :)

rvz 2y ago

Hmm, Not really convinced. I like TUIs and also the aesthetic of them. Much faster to use on a keyboard than point clicking all over the place with a mouse on the screen or typing the long commands and flags and forgetting a single flag and having to typing it once again.

pfg_ 2y ago
If you forget a flag, can't you move your cursor and add the flag? No need to type the whole command again
- wpm 2y ago
  If your terminal is using readline/emacs bindings, Meta + B will go backward one word. Ctrl + a will move the cursor to the beginning of the line. There are of course equivalents if your terminal is configured to use the vi/vim keybinds. On macOS, you can hold Option and click to emulate the correct amount of left or right arrow presses to move the cursor. So, no, you don't need to type the whole command again. I would personally probably hit Ctrl + a and move my cursor forward a few words to where I need to add the flag.

eMPee584 2y ago

TUIs are memory-friendly tools for complex tasks and have a different UX feel (can be more comfortable, clear & informative, accessible) to pure CLI or native/web apps. I for one am extremely happy there's a thriving terminal ecosystem, nowadays with colors, icons (nerdfonts), emojis, mouse support, widget layouts.. even sixels and smooth scrolling..

santiagobasulto 2y ago

> TUIs are an abomination of design that poorly mimic actually beautiful UIs My mother used to have an early "digital company" back in the 90s in Argentina. We are from a small town in the "Patagonia region"[0] and there was only 1 programmer in the whole town. The guy was a huge nerd that had spent some time studying in Buenos Aires. Long story short, my mother hired this kid to build software for him. This is around 1992 so it was all DOS. This guy built a full TUI software with CRUD operation, reporting, "cron jobs" (some stuff that I never understood but would run every night), printing, etc. Until this day I remember the people working at my mother's company how they just FLEW over the software. It was all keyboard and hotkeys. They'd just go back and forth, print stuff, enter data, connect with the Fax machine, all with their keyboard in this black screen full of green, white and orange glyphs. I NEVER found any other software that is SO powerful and efficient and user friendly as TUIs. [0] The "true" Patagonia region in the East of Arg.

imiric 2y ago
That's great, but keyboard shortcuts are not exclusive to TUIs. GUIs can be just as powerful in that sense, and most advanced web apps support keyboard navigation. My objection is mainly to the claim that TUIs are beautiful, and to the effort of bringing their design to the web. But this is ultimately down to personal preferences, and others may disagree.
- santiagobasulto 2y ago
  Yes, GUIs and Web interfaces can support keyboard navigation. But I have NEVER found one fully exploiting this. Linear (ticket tracking app) is maybe the only one that comes to mind as a good alternative, but nowhere close to the fluidity achieved by TUIs. I think the reason is "limitation", if you have to design an app that CAN NOT use a Mouse, you'll be darn sure it'll work well with the keyboard.
- graemep 2y ago
  Its true in theory, but it does not work well in practice because: 1. Developers have to make an extra effort (and require time) to do it right 2. People are much less likely to learn the keyboard shortcuts If you designed a GUI to be keyboard first then it might work as you say, but I cannot think of any real life examples of that. I think people need to TUI look to push them to use keyboards.