Text-based user interface: Difference between revisions

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# A genuine [[text mode]] display, controlled by a [[video adapter]] or the central processor itself. This is a normal condition for a locally running application on various types of [[personal computer]]s and [[mobile device]]s. If not deterred by the [[operating system]], a smart program may exploit the full power of a hardware text mode.

# A text mode [[emulator]]. Examples are [[xterm]] for [[X&nbsp;Window System]] and [[win32 console]] (in a window mode) for [[Microsoft Windows]]. This usually supports programs which expect a real text mode display, but may run considerably slower. Certain functions of an advanced text mode, such as an own [[raster font|font]] uploading<!-- BTW what about raw keyboard input? -->, almost certainly become unavailable.

# A remote [[text terminal]]. The communication capabilities usually become reduced to a [[serial line]] or its emulation, possibly with few [[ioctl]]()s as an [[Out-of-band data|out-of-band]] channel in such cases as [[Telnet]] and [[Secure Shell]]. This is the worst case, because software restrictions hinder the use of capabilities of a remote display device.

Under [[Linux kernel|Linux]] and other [[Unix-like]] systems, a program easily [[graceful degradation|accommodates]] to any of the three cases because the same interface (namely, [[standard streams]]) controls the display and keyboard. See [[#Windows|below]] for comparison to Windows.

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Most often those programs used a blue background for the main screen, with white or yellow characters, although commonly they had also user color customization. They often used [[box-drawing character]]s in IBM's [[code page 437]]. Later, the interface became deeply influenced by [[graphical user interface]]s (GUI), adding [[pull-down menu]]s, overlapping [[window (computing)|windows]], [[dialog box]]es and [[GUI widget]]s operated by [[mnemonics (keyboard)|mnemonics]] or [[keyboard shortcut]]s. Soon [[computer mouse|mouse]] input was added&nbsp;– either at text resolution as a simple colored box or at graphical resolution thanks to the ability of the [[Enhanced Graphics Adapter]] (EGA) and [[Video Graphics Array]] (VGA) display adapters to [[VGA-compatible text mode#Fonts|redefine the text character shapes by software]]&nbsp;– providing additional functions.

Some notable programs of this kind were [[Microsoft Word]], [[DOS Shell]], [[WordPerfect]], [[Norton Commander]], [[Turbo Vision]] based [[Borland]] [[Turbo Pascal]] and [[Borland Turbo C|Turbo C]] (the latter included the [[conio.h|conio]] [[library (computer science)|library]]), [[Lotus 1-2-3]] and many others. Some of these interfaces survived even during the [[Microsoft]] [[Windows 3.1x]] period in the early 1990s. For example, the [[Microsoft C]] 6.0 compiler, used to write true GUI programs under [[16-bit]] Windows, still has its own TUI.

Since its start, [[Microsoft Windows]] includes a console to display DOS software. Later versions added the [[Windows console]] as a native interface for [[command-line interface]] and TUI programs. The console usually opens in window mode, but it can be switched to full, true text mode screen and vice versa by pressing the [[Alt key|Alt]] and [[Enter key|Enter]] keys together. Full-screen mode is not available in Windows Vista and later, but may be used with some workarounds.<ref>[http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en/w7itprohardware/thread/3cc6994e-cbc2-4844-b040-a3c8385c69a5 cmd prompt full screen in Windows 7]. Social.technet.microsoft.com. Retrieved on 2013-06-15.</ref>

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== Oberon ==

[[File:OberonScreen.PNG|thumb|300px|Screenshot of the desktop of an Oberon System showing an image and several text viewers]]

Another kind of TUI is the primary interface of the [[Oberon (operating system)|Oberon operating system]], first released in 1988 and still maintained. Unlike most other text-based user interfaces, Oberon does not use a text-mode console or terminal, but requires a large bit-mapped display, on which text is the primary target for mouse clicks. Analogous to a [[Hyperlink|link]] in [[hypertext]], a command has the format <code>Module.Procedure ''parameters''&nbsp;~</code> and is activated with a mouse middle-click. Text displayed anywhere on the screen can be edited, and if formatted with the required command syntax, can be middle-clicked and executed. Any text file containing suitably-formatted commands can be used as a so-called '''tool text''', thus serving as a user-configurable menu. Even the output of a previous command can be edited and used as a new command. This approach is radically different from both conventional dialogue-oriented console menus or [[command-line interface]]s but bears some similarities to the worksheet interface of the [[Macintosh Programmer's Workshop#look and feel|Macintosh Programmer's Workshop]].

Since it does not use graphical [[Graphical widget|widgets]], only plain text, but offers comparable functionality to a [[GUI]] with a [[tiling window manager]], it is referred to as a Text User Interface or TUI. For a short introduction, see the 2nd paragraph on page four of the first published ''Report on the Oberon System''.<ref>{{cite tech report |author1-link=Niklaus Wirth |first1=Niklaus |last1=Wirth |first2=Jürg |last2=Gutknecht |date=1988 |title=The Oberon System |url=http://e-collection.library.ethz.ch/eserv/eth:3180/eth-3180-01.pdf |volume=88 |series=ETH Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule Zürich, Institut für Informatik |doi=10.3929/ethz-a-000487176 }}</ref>