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Things I've learned building a modern TUI Framework (2022)

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331 points willm | 1 comments | 11 Aug 24 12:22 UTC | HN request time: 1.187s | source
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mikkelam ◴[11 Aug 24 16:47 UTC] No.41217448[source]▶
Why do software engineers care so much about TUI? I really don't get it. I love a good command line program. But TUI just doesn't appeal to me.
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1. habitue ◴[11 Aug 24 19:05 UTC] No.41218568[source]▶
It's the other ubiquitously installed cross-platform GUI toolkit other than the web.

Additionally, it has a hacker aesthetic. The styling is aggressively not separated from the content, and the styling knobs are pretty limited, so tui apps kind of converge on a single style. That style reminds us of hacker movies and cool sci-fi shit :)

It's not loved by corporate designers. Companies don't make sales based on their TUIs (to either businesses or consumers). So without those commercial pressures, tuis are designed by developers for developers.

Because of this, the meme of tuis self-reinforces. Developers see and use TUIs, notice that they are usually tools built with developers in mind, and then want to go on to make their own TUIs.