9 Jun
2025
9 Jun
'25
5:57 p.m.
Hi,
I got interested in UI design and often study some historical aspects of it as I work on
software. It’s hard not to notice how fast/usable Text User Interfaces are—ncurses and its
siblings are still alive and well. From the ergonomy point of view, not needing a mouse in
those interfaces if perfect.
Question: where did TUIs come from originally, and what were their earliest instances?
Many pages state that Vi was the first, but I’ve been looking through some old hardware
photos, and things capable of more sophisticated interactions existed before Vi:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Light_pen
Some terminals with block display:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_3270
^ ’71. Wiki says Vi showed up in ’76, but I suspect IBM mainframes may have had TUIs
before.
Question 2: were there any manuals talking about TUIs? I’m thinking some of those spiffy
IBM things mandating certain design.
Thanks,
Adam