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WebTUI – A CSS Library That Brings the Beauty of Terminal UIs to the Browser

(webtui.ironclad.sh)
320 points IroncladDev | 4 comments | 12 Apr 25 22:02 UTC | HN request time: 0s | source
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rollcat ◴[13 Apr 25 06:39 UTC] No.43670593[source]▶
I don't understand the obsession with 1980s terminals. They're even less powerful than the contemporary 8-bit home computers. It's perfectly OK to be a retro enthusiast, it's another thing to claim that this is the peak tech to power our modern CLIs, or a solid foundation for portable UIs.

From the docs:

    Stop thinking in standard CSS units like px, em, rem, %
    Start thinking in Character Cells for spacing, sizing, and positioning
A VT102 already has a character grid, but it needs a serial protocol to allow applications on the mainframe to talk to it. You can loop around this and use the raw mode to address individual cells.

The web browser has an insanely powerful typographic and layout engine. Now we're looping back into character cells. Something went wrong here, at least once.

That said, I like the aesthetic and the default color palette. It's quirky, but it has its places.

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pdntspa ◴[13 Apr 25 07:02 UTC] No.43670690[source]▶
And can we stop calling every stupid little hobby project "beautiful" while we're at it? The word has no meaning any more.
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big_paps ◴[13 Apr 25 07:47 UTC] No.43670897[source]▶
I find the usage of „i love x“ for x representing something inanimate you surely do not love far more unsettling..
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1. tgv ◴[13 Apr 25 08:05 UTC] No.43670988[source]▶
This is getting quite off-topic, but I do love music. At least, that's how I would describe it. I just heard a fragment of something truly beautiful, and the my emotional attachment to that music is quite real (in this case, the Largo of Bach's concerto for two violins, BWV 1043; although I know someone who dismissed it as long-winding).

But words tend to get nerfed, and clickbait culture certainly doesn't help. "Slams" in a headline has been reduced to "made a somewhat negative remark about," and "genius" now means "it took more than 2 seconds of thinking." Let's not discuss what "beyond excited" has become. I too would like word meanings not to shift too fast, as it helps preserve culture, especially literature, but the forces are too strong and diffuse to oppose.

So "I love this web font" now just means "Don't think, just click on this link."

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2. rollcat ◴[13 Apr 25 12:42 UTC] No.43672365[source]▶
I would love to help bring elegance and beauty to the software we build, both on the inside and outside - and that's my main motivation behind criticising terminals and TUIs specifically.

I have vague ideas for how I could build something ergonomic, easy, and pleasant to use, but I lack experience in this area, and the focus/energy to experiment.

I'm hoping to bring this subject to the light, and have a constructive discussion. If not me, then perhaps someone else will get inspired.

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3. tgv ◴[13 Apr 25 18:18 UTC] No.43674724[source]▶
IMO, you need to be a domain expert in order to produce something ergonomic, easy to use. You (or the team you're part of) have to understand the topic and users extremely well. There's no catch-all design, not even a process that covers more than the most mundane cases.

But inspiration is a fickle thing. If you're going to build something, you might as well be inspired by terminal-style interaction, but it can't be the goal.

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4. rollcat ◴[14 Apr 25 09:00 UTC] No.43679410{3}[source]▶
> If you're going to build something, you might as well be inspired by terminal-style interaction, but it can't be the goal.

100% agree. I believe that if we do replace the terminal, the end result will not be that much different - keyboard first, power users first, APIs that are simple to consume, platform-agnostic. What would make the key differences is letting go of 50 years of accumulated technical debt, that continues to hold back the UX - aka the ergonomics and ease of use.

> IMO, you need to be a domain expert [...]. You (or the team you're part of) have to understand the topic and users extremely well.

"Sometimes Ordis likes to assume he knows nothing. Nobody can learn what they think they already know."

<https://wiki.warframe.com/w/Ordis/Quotes>