5 ms·

Tabs vs spaces. I’ve always appreciated the positive side of TUIs and appreciated less the positive side of GUIs. I didn’t grow up with a computer at all and i

Tabs vs spaces. I’ve always appreciated the positive side of TUIs and appreciated less the positive side of GUIs. I didn’t grow up with a computer at all and in one of my first adult jobs I had to use a TUI at Papa John’s for punching in orders, it was 20x faster than anything I used after it at other restaurants that were GUI driven (keyboard speed wins for me, fit my brain perfectly). I think I learned it in 5 minutes. I was just a normy trying to pay bills. I dunno why we gotta be insulting to people’s preferences, the article is genuinely bad about this.

jbstack 26d ago
I like TUIs for largely the same reasons as you, but I don't think this is actually a valid criticism of the article. It specifically addresses this by pointing out that you can make your GUI keyboard driven if you want to, so this isn't really an advantage of TUIs per se. It just happens that TUIs tend to be keyboard focussed while GUIs tend to be mouse focussed. But that's a design choice rather than an inherent property of TUIs vs GUIs. I agree that I found the article to be poorly written. Mainly because it takes a long time to make its point. I didn't really need to see a million examples of the author's vibe coded slop before getting to the topic which the title suggested the article would be about.
- notpushkin 26d ago
  > I didn't really need to see a million examples of the author's vibe coded slop before getting to the topic which the title suggested the article would be about. Agreed. One would hope the article would go into detail of how to make a great GUI (including tips on how to make sure it’s easy to navigate with a keyboard).
WhyNotHugo 26d ago
What you're comparing is really "keyboard-driven" via "mouse-drive". A GUI can be keyboard-driven and as fast as a TUI. The sad truth is that the status quo for GUIs is absolutely terrible, and most were rushed out and not properly tested to check if they're really usable without a mouse.
- lenkite 26d ago
  A GUI requires a lot more work to be keyboard-driven and as fast as a TUI.
  - okanat 23d ago
    No. Maybe web UIs do. However professional GUI libraries like WinForms, WPF, Qt come with a lot of well defined interfaces for activating menu bar, Alt+<key> combos, tab ordering. Just like TUIs, the developer should take time to program them. It is not a lot of work though. Most of the time it is a simple XML config change.
- krzyk 26d ago
  Yes, but GUIs are by default mouse driven, very rarely one can see a keyboard driven one (I haven't seen any). And TUIs are only keyboard driven. So the choice for speed if you don't need graphics is always - TUI (or CLI).
  - vidarh 26d ago
    > And TUIs are only keyboard driven. Plenty of TUIs support mouse to various extents too. Claude Code is an obvious example (try the scroll wheel for example). I agree with you that TUIs are keyboard driven first though - and so you can be certain it will work well.
  - cpach 26d ago
    Emacs is primarily keyboard driven.
    - krzyk 25d ago
      Is there a GUI Emacs? I used only TUI one.
  - singpolyma3 25d ago
    A TUI is a GUI.

jbstack 26d ago

I like TUIs for largely the same reasons as you, but I don't think this is actually a valid criticism of the article. It specifically addresses this by pointing out that you can make your GUI keyboard driven if you want to, so this isn't really an advantage of TUIs per se. It just happens that TUIs tend to be keyboard focussed while GUIs tend to be mouse focussed. But that's a design choice rather than an inherent property of TUIs vs GUIs. I agree that I found the article to be poorly written. Mainly because it takes a long time to make its point. I didn't really need to see a million examples of the author's vibe coded slop before getting to the topic which the title suggested the article would be about.

notpushkin 26d ago
> I didn't really need to see a million examples of the author's vibe coded slop before getting to the topic which the title suggested the article would be about. Agreed. One would hope the article would go into detail of how to make a great GUI (including tips on how to make sure it’s easy to navigate with a keyboard).

WhyNotHugo 26d ago

What you're comparing is really "keyboard-driven" via "mouse-drive". A GUI can be keyboard-driven and as fast as a TUI. The sad truth is that the status quo for GUIs is absolutely terrible, and most were rushed out and not properly tested to check if they're really usable without a mouse.

lenkite 26d ago
A GUI requires a lot more work to be keyboard-driven and as fast as a TUI.
- okanat 23d ago
  No. Maybe web UIs do. However professional GUI libraries like WinForms, WPF, Qt come with a lot of well defined interfaces for activating menu bar, Alt+<key> combos, tab ordering. Just like TUIs, the developer should take time to program them. It is not a lot of work though. Most of the time it is a simple XML config change.
krzyk 26d ago
Yes, but GUIs are by default mouse driven, very rarely one can see a keyboard driven one (I haven't seen any). And TUIs are only keyboard driven. So the choice for speed if you don't need graphics is always - TUI (or CLI).
- vidarh 26d ago
  > And TUIs are only keyboard driven. Plenty of TUIs support mouse to various extents too. Claude Code is an obvious example (try the scroll wheel for example). I agree with you that TUIs are keyboard driven first though - and so you can be certain it will work well.
- cpach 26d ago
  Emacs is primarily keyboard driven.
  - krzyk 25d ago
    Is there a GUI Emacs? I used only TUI one.
- singpolyma3 25d ago
  A TUI is a GUI.