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0 pointsBjartr1mo ago0 comments

Terminal User Interface, contrasting with a Graphical User Interface (GUI). Most often applied to programs that use the terminal as a pseudo-graphical canvas that they draw on with characters to provide an interactive page that can be navigated around with the keyboard.

Really, they're just a GUI drawn with Unicode instead of drawing primitives.

Like many restrictions, limiting oneself to just a fixed grid of colored Unicode characters for drawing lends itself to more creative solutions to problems. Some people prefer such UIs, some people don't.

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Muvasa1mo ago

I prefer tui's for two reasons. 1. Very used to vi keybindings 2. I like low resources software. I love the ability to open the software in less than a second in a second do what I needed using vi motions. And close it less than a second.

Some people will be like you save two seconds trying to do something simple. You lose more time building the tool than you will use it in your life.

It's not about saving time. It's about eliminating the mental toll from having to context switch(i know it sounds ai, reading so much ai text has gotten to me)

kstrauser1mo ago

That’s an excellent way to explain it. I’m already in the shell doing stuff. Whenever I can stay there without sacrificing usability, it’s a big boost.

irl_zebra1mo ago

"It's not about saving time, it's about eliminating the mental toll from having to context switch"

This broke my brain! Woah!

17186274401mo ago

Yet another benefit is that it is buffered, so you don't need to wait for the program to catch up, before you can type the next key.

criddell1mo ago

> an interactive page that can be navigated around with the keyboard

Or mouse / trackpad.

I really haven't seen anything better for making TUIs than Borland's Turbo Vision framework from 35ish years ago.

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