TIL

TUI means Text-based User Interface
I always thought it meant Terminal User Interface

I remember thinking that command line interface (CLI) is only meant for short exchanges of input and output, and just GUI can do visualizations. Boy, was I wrong! The world of TUIs is inspiring.

I insist that a T(ext)UI is something that only uses the properties of text that are inherent to it being text. If it breaks with a variable width font, it's a GUI. If it doesn't work with a fucking screen reader it's a GUI. GUIs are GUIs, whether they're displayed on an LCD, CRT or character array. They're defined by their reliance on geometry, not what they use to build that geometry.

You could call it a Terminal UI. It certainly operates on a teletype terminal, or an emulation of it. But Text UI means lines. Maybe tables, but only if they use single tabs(or other single delimiters) to delimit columns, which can be trivially interpreted without acknowledging the grid.

@lbfalvy TUIs support mouse input (which is like a whole other level than just text + shortcuts) 🙂🖱️🖥️

@SuspiciousBug Curses and other terminal GUIs (which misguidedly use TUI as a blend between text and GUI rather than a rejection of the G in GUI) offer mouse input. TUI is a word older than curses, and it refers to everything not graphical. Most command line tools are inherently TUIs.