Or maybe people genuinely like TUIs? Most folks came of age after the TUI had already lost popularity to the eye candy and only recently learned the merits of the terminal. I personally have always loved a good TUI and enjoy the terminal. I can’t count the number of people who worked in a TUI and were pushed to a modern GUI say (usually in the 00’s) how much more productive they were in the TUI version.
What would you say are the merits of the terminal that a TUI encapsulates?
My opinion is that TUI is just a GUI with less fidelity. Being composed of text characters provides no additional benefit other than a retro style. The benefits of the terminal are outside of TUIs - composing scripts, piping data, bash etc.
Vim keybindings, one of the most powerful and widely supported ways of interacting with information, basically impose the "grid of text" nature that define TUIs anyway, so my message prompt has to look like a terminal. The rest of the UI can be whatever, but grid-of-text works well for structured output, especially code blocks, as well.
TUIs compose with tmux. Pi's homepage says "use tmux" twice on it. It fits right into an already-mature ecosystem including a clipboard (powered by Vim visual / line / block mode) and easy integration with shells, editors, and other tools. GUIs generally have to re-invent all those wheels (tabs, splits, sessions, etc.) and it never integrates as well with other tools in a totally cross-platform way.
One small example - ChatGTP desktop intercepts highlighted text selection with "Ask ChatGTP" bubble. I have my own app that materializes a menu on highlighted text, but ChatGTP blocks it. No issues with that in the terminal. I am not a terminal junkie, but these opinionated paper cuts are annoying.
Text interfaces can offer precision and breadth of tooling that guis don't.
I do a fair amount of CAD so I'll use that example. Nobody who uses CAD professionally is clicking all the little buttons for tools. They're using commands, shortcuts, scripts, etc.
A GUI is slow and clunky. A textual interface, once learned, has way more degrees of freedom.
> They're using commands, shortcuts, scripts, etc.
Yes, power users often use shortcuts and automation, but how is that an argument against GUIs?
It simply depends a lot on the actual task. Certain things absolutely require a (high fidelity) graphical interface. Other things can be done just as well (and with less distraction) in a simple TUI. You can't generalize.
I don't think anyone referring to GUI means 'no commands/shortcuts/scripts', like, all of those that all CAD programs are GUIs that have commands, shortcuts, etc.
My two cents is that having all of your text be monospaced is not really ideal for agentic workflows where you do in fact read a lot of prose and in the future may want diagrams, rendered from a full browser's capabilities, etc.
I think I like the aesthetic of using a TUI because it makes me feel more like whatever 'real programmer' means to me... but I recognize its also cope.
(Also TUIs made a lot more sense when code was more expensive, because the monospacing constraint made it faster to build UI, etc.)
have you ever used, for example, vs code or Excel? both have robust GUI and keyboard capabilities. Andexcel has vba and now python and other scripting, and vscode is eminently extensible.
LLMs can be too creative and often too verbose. Sometimes there is a right answer and a way to get there with the understanding of language, but despite using structured outputs, the model insists on inventing variations not in the schema or coming up with something completely different. A model like Jev that can not do those things, and can give the same output every time with given the same input, and be able to measure probabilities has many use cases.
Yeah geeks just stop trying! Seriously? Yeah, we’re in a bubble and narratives are ahead of reality but if you really don’t think AI is and will continue to eat knowledge work, just keep making your buggy whips.
I disagree. The human brain reinforces circuitry that is used often, meaning the human brain is generally quite adaptable. Ancient (and modern) hunters sit still and silent for hours waiting for game, with their brains ready to take over in an instant on the rare occasion something happens.
Right but you don't get in car accidents or near-accidents often. Ergo your brain becomes wired for the 99.9999999% of driving that is completely uneventful.
Hunters are a self-selecting group of people who enjoy the activity you describe. If you don't like it or can't do it, you just don't do it.
Virtually every single adult in America has to drive, however, to live a functional life.
I try to watch car crash dashcam videos once a month or so on Reddit or YouTube. I feel like it recalibrates my brain to be more aware of the things that could happen that are out on the tail end of the distribution, like you say.
You are avoiding cars constantly when driving with a non-zero amount of traffic. Way more incidents than predators in the savanna while doing persistence hunting.
What conversation do you think we would be having? Would we be debating the laws that January 6 attendees are passing in the chambers? What alternate outcome do you think was likely, or even possible?
I made a new reddit account for a side project a few months ago and I couldn't believe how terrible reddit is when you don't have 10 years of subreddit curation. The default experience is to be dumped into what basically amounts to "Facebook boomer slop" mixed with a ton of hustle / small business / get rich quick content.
It's an unpleasant experience. My main Reddit account doesn't "solve reddit" by any means - I often find myself thinking "man this site sucks, I should stop coming here," but the difference between that curated account and a fresh one is night and day.
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