- Author
- Thomas & Erin Ptacek, per the site's copyright line; no byline
- Published
- 20 August 2026
- Kind
- Personal blog post, with a tour of AI-generated apps
- Original
- sockpuppet.org/blog/2026/08/20/stop-making-tuis/
- Subject
- Future of computing
What it is
The post is on the blog A Final Ward. It is written in the first person. It tours apps such as a Markdown viewer, then argues against new TUIs.
What it says
- The author says agents have dissolved the old split between frontend, backend, web and native.
- The author shows apps written almost entirely by an agent. They include a Markdown viewer, a SageMath front end and an Apple TV remote.
- The author says CLIs are worth building, but TUIs almost never are.
- The author says TUIs fight the terminal over scrolling, drag and drop, selection and images.
- The author answers defenses of TUIs: speed, SSH use, accessibility and cross-platform reach.
- The author's process is a template app folder, a Makefile build and downloaded skills. The agent also needs computer-use to drive the app.
- The author grants that TUIs are cross-platform. That matters little for apps built only for oneself.
What evidence it gives
The evidence is a tour of the author's own apps and personal experience. The post gives no benchmarks or user studies. The accessibility point cites one speaker and general claims about frameworks.
Interests and limits
The author speaks only for macOS and assumes Windows and Linux are similar. The apps are not released, so readers cannot check them. The author admits the piece may read as personal preference. The screenshots were not viewed.