(25-08-2020, 03:25 PM)phillbush Wrote: I dream of writing a GUI interface made up of individual programs glued together via pipes just like a TUI is made up of several cli programs glued together via pipes.

I'm an old Unix fart who's still fond of textmode, pipes & filters, and all the rest of the classic Unix environment. So I sympathize with and even share your dream to some extent.

But it seems to me that what you're describing is only a way to implement the familiar old WIMP interface that we've been living with since the 1990's. Your approach might improve the plumbing, but the user interface -- the part that faces the user -- is essentially unchanged.

I think the trends in UI design for the everyday user are toward more and more simplification, and fewer and fewer dials and knobs. It's already been ten years since the 4th Generation iPod Shuffles were introduced, and here we are, still talking about pulldown menus, control-key chords -- and file managers!

Compare all that to a voice-activated AI like Siri that can be trained to know your preferences and know how to find whatever you're looking for or put together a playlist of songs that fit your current mood (which it might deduce from observations of your facial expression or tone of voice).

Or a butler that keeps your house running smoothly without needing to told each time something needs to be done or how to do it (cf. the German military doctrine of Auftragstaktik.)

In short,if you want to see the future of UI, think beyond the desktop and even beyond your mobile device. Think about the internet of things, robotics, AI -- and try to imagine where all that is going.