Text-based user interface: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 01:36, 6 August 2021

Revision as of 14:44, 15 November 2021

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[[File:Vim-%28logiciel%29-console.png|thumb|300px|[[Vim (text editor)|Vim]] is a very widely used TUI text editor]]

In [[computing]], '''text-based user interfaces''' ('''TUI''') (alternately '''terminal user interfaces''', to reflect a dependence upon the properties of [[computer terminal]]s and not just text), is a [[retronym]] describing a type of [[user interface]] (UI) common as an early form of [[human–computer interaction]], before the advent of [[graphical user interface]]s (GUIs). Like GUIs, they may use the entire [[Electronic visual display|screen]] area and accept [[mouse (computing)|mouse]] and other inputs. They may also use color and often structure the display using special graphical [[Character (computing)|character]]s such as ┌ and ╣, referred to in [[Unicode]] as the "box drawing" set. The modern context of use is usually a [[terminal emulator]].

<!-- [[VisiCalc]] and the [[Emacs]] and [[vi]] [[visual editor]]s are the earliest examples of TUIs. -->

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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 remotetext mode [[text terminalemulator]]. The communication capabilitieslities 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.

# 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. Also, [[#Under Unix-like systems|specialized programming libraries]] help to output the text in a way appropriate to the given display device and interface to it. See [[#Windows|below]] for a comparison to Windows.