Text-based user interface

Character-based user interface (English Text User Interface, TUI short ) is a retronym, which was coined after the advent of graphical user interfaces. It refers to user interfaces that use the screen area (not line-oriented ), but will still run in text mode the hardware.

The word is used to distinguish the one hand from the command prompt -based user interface Command Line Interface ( CLI), on the other hand, those which use graphics Graphical User Interface ( GUI).

The programmer has thereby only the (typically 256 different ) characters in a single font available. Many newer TUIs have been trying since the late 1980s to imitate elements of GUIs by are simulated for windows or other elements such as menus, check boxes, buttons, etc. with the help of frames and other special characters framework. Most of these newer TUIs can be operated with the mouse, but are almost always all functions using the keyboard accessible.

Input masks mainframes have often character-based user interfaces. The protocol sends tn3270 - in contrast to zeichenorientiertem Telnet - complete input masks at a terminal or a terminal emulator to be filled there and sent back via an input key to the mainframe.

Character-based user interface on Unix / Linux

Under Unix -like operating systems character-based user interfaces are often created with curses ncurses respectively. The dialog program provides many capabilities of ncurses ready that can be used without programming skills but.

Examples of character-based user interfaces

  • Midnight Commander
  • Norton Commander
  • Aptitude
  • BitchX
  • FAR Manager
  • Fdisk variations
  • The menuconfig configuration option for the Linux kernel (which is called by make menuconfig )
  • Irssi
  • Mutt
  • Partimage
  • Pine
  • Htop top or the more interactive version
  • Turbo Pascal
  • YaST

Furthermore, use of the most bootloader and all BIOS setup programs character-based user interfaces. Even with many installation routines of operating systems is TUIs.

MS-DOS Borland Box-drawing character Aptitude (software) Advanced Packaging Tool Curses (programming library) Mutt (email client) Pine (email client) Top (software)
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