[SoftTalker]

I don't see any real advantage of TUIs over web forms or GUIs for the same thing.

I do like CLIs though, especially the ones that are properly capable of working in pipelines. Composing a pipeline of simple command-line utilities to achieve exactly what you want is very powerful.

[PeterWhittaker]

There are some applications/systems for which certifying bodies forbid the use of web management because of vulnerabilities in both the protocols and the clients and servers. For example, in my daily, several national cyber organizations (NSA, CSE, GCHQ, etc.) have such direction. That's why our main product line is managed using a TUI accessed at the local console or over SSH (with very, very carefully curated SELinux MAC, among other things).

Having said that....

If one is willing to build one's own HTTP server with integrated MAC, etc., and is able to demonstrate mitigations against known vulnerabilities, one may be able to get the certifying bodies on board. Time will tell.

Yes, this is very niche, but TUIs are in general niche.

[1123581321]

I like a TUI when I always want an app to run side by side with a CLI. It’s easier to do split windows in a terminal or tmux/zellij panes than to script two separate app windows to stay locked together as a pair. Although, I’d welcome advice as to how to do it better.

I also find TUIs are easier to program for the same reason they’re limited. Fewer human interface aspects in play and it’s not offensive to use the same UI across OSes. (There are still under-the-hood differences across OSes, e.g. efficient file event watching.)

[1313ed01]

> It’s easier to do split windows in a terminal or tmux/zellij panes than to script two separate app windows to stay locked together as a pair. Although, I’d welcome advice as to how to do it better.

Did you try some tiling window managers and decided you did not like that?

[1123581321]

I prefer most apps to not tile. Tiling window managers might still work with config.

[baq]

TUIs work well over ssh. Pretty much everything else is a pain in the ass in some capacity, especially when the ssh client is a smartphone.

[duskdozer]

- easy over ssh

- "within bounds" more; designed for actions with keyboard shortcuts and up/down/left/right

- less busy - devs are constrained or less tempted to add animations, css, and other distractions

[sophacles]

Having a tui file picker in the pipeline can be a powerful technique. Sometimes it just makes sense to have an interface that is slightly more interactive than pre-selecting all the files makes the flow smoother. Being able to put that into a script/alias/whatever is nice.

Other CLI things benefit from this "have a minimal ui interface in the workflow for the one step where it makes sense".

[qingcharles]

Gemini made a lovely TUI for my C# project, but afterwards it said it could just spin up a Kestrel web server inside the app instead which would be a much better solution for managing it, which was fair. (I have a line in my Agents to warn me when I specify a way of building something and it's not the ideal solution)

[anonzzzies]

> I have a line in my Agents to warn me when I specify a way of building something and it's not the ideal solution

And that helps? I tried that a while ago and it very often said this is not a good way of doing something even though it was objectively the best way of doing something. I removed it after a while because it was too random.

[rgoulter]

In practice, TUIs tend to have good keybindings, & are readily available right in the place where you're running the command (especially for quick tasks).

[SoftTalker]

They can, but don't always. I've used some where you have to smash the TAB key 50 times go move linearly through all the fields and controls. If there are well-implemented navigation keys, yes they it can be very efficient.

[verdverm]

I just added a TUI built on Charm for my custom agent. I primarily use it for two things.

1. Navigating all my chat sessions and doing admin work. It's super fast to push a single key to go in and see what it was about before deleting it.

2. Testing out features and code changes without the web UI / vs code extension complexity.

3. Places where I cannot connect VS Code. I still want to chat and see diffs, a TUI is much easier than a CLI for this.

It also has a CLI, basically three interfaces (CLI, TUI, GUI (vscode/webapp)) to the core features of my personal swiss army knife (https://github.com/hofstadter-io/hof)

[christophilus]

TUIs are much easier to run in a container, for one thing. Though, I guess a terminal-based web browser would work for some web apps.