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Is it just me or having GUI elements inside a terminal feels wrong ?



But sometimes seeing what's possible is good. I believe there are hundreds of commands I would be interested in, but that I don't know exists or have thought about. Right click and get a context menu with the proper command will make me learn something new. And I'll probably end up using the command in the future now that I know it exists and what it does.


It's not just you. It is wrong. A terminal is the most keyboard-driven experience you can imagine. Whenever there's a context menu it should be driven by key combination so you can move through without having to change to the mouse. When you change to the mouse you hit a context switch in the way you interact, that's why it feels disorienting to some people.


Graphical does not mean point'n'click or mouse driven. GUIs can be keyboard driven too.


If you look at the video you'll see the mouse being used. I haven't tried the software so I don't know if that's the only way it can be used (the site seems to imply otherwise), so I'd reserve judgement.


Depending on elements.

Terminal emulator is, in fact, a GUI application, it's just that it mostly consists of a single text matrix widget. I believe many people use mouse to select text, so I don't think there's anything wrong if the text is somehow more interactive, as long as this is non-obtrusive.


no it's not only you, but don't count me in. You are conservative, sir. Now downvote, hate and burn me for saying this. Many Linux people hate GUIs, it's a reflex to hate GUI applications, I don't want to generalize, but you probably know quite a lot of experts in their field who simply hate GUI stuff and every single one has his "own" interpretation of why GUI is wrong.

The thing is, GUIs aren't wrong, it's just that the GUI applications have no uniform interoperability like their CLI counterparts. Whose fault is that? Certainly NOT the authors! The fault is much deeper in the OS.


"Now downvote, hate", etc.. always reminds me of young girls who would always post photos with captions like "Ugly" and "Gross" phishing for compliments.

P.S. It doesn't have to do with hating GUIs for most people, it has to do with using a terminal efficiently, which often times means avoiding the mouse when possible.


Hello Justin,

yes, but that's exactly the argument I expected. Not using the mouse on GUIs is entirely possible, but your argument let's GUIs look as if they are antiquated technology not able to handle hotkeys or vim motions or anything else you want to improve efficiency.

You refer to efficiency as driving point, which I'm a big fan of, although you probably know quite well that you wouldn't use an OS if it had no GUI. The cost of entry into the IT community isn't just time, but capability and intelligence. These are the reasons why still many people are digitally divided and can't use computers efficiently. The GUIs aren't easy enough for them, forget about the terminal efficiency.. You only reach efficiency when you have the possibility to collect enough routine. How will your Grandfather get that routine, when the "cost of entry" is too high for him to master in his age.

We're not on facebook, don't expect anyone to go phishing for upvotes. We care to improve the knowledge, efficiency, health and productivity of startup people on HN.


I couldn't see any GUI elements but drop down menus, which only seem to augment the textual interface by giving a contextual interpretation of certain elements. Oh yeah, and the progress bar, which seems nice!


the real crime here is that the gui elements don't have the same style as the cli elements - they stand out like a sore thumb

but it would be sweet (more for my folks than for me, but still) if you could click on a filename in a terminal to open it, or drag from one directory listing to another to move it


It only feels wrong.

You don't have to use the GUI I'd imagine.


yes, but then you don't really _need_ such terminal.

I would love to have FinalTerm's features in some sane terminal (no gtk, no super slow libraries etc)


>yes, but then you don't really _need_ such terminal.

Who is "you"? Different people have different needs and preferences.


The point is if the "gui" can be keyboard operated, then it can be displayed as text, by the shell, with no need to augment/modify the terminal emulator to do it. In fact, even if it is only mouse operated, you can do that - most terminal emulators support mouse interaction. The only thing you achieve by adding this to terminal emulator is guarantee that it will be unavailable to you whenever you need to log into any of the systems you work on from someone elses machine.


>The point is if the "gui" can be keyboard operated, then it can be displayed as text, by the shell, with no need to augment/modify the terminal emulator to do it.

Maybe, but that makes the GUI look worse.


Maybe it's just me, but I care about functionality first, an beauty second for my terminals. I do like a pretty terminal, but I care more about being able to get things done.




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