CLI. Wtf is a TUI? LLMs say it has some to do with interactivity in a menu or something, but believe me, we had this all in the 80’s. Nothing new here, but the truth is the CLI is better faster and cheaper. Pick all three.
CLI is "run a command, get output, drop you back at your shell prompt". TUI is a full-screen interface inside the terminal which you stay inside of, no longer interacting with your shell.
I think that’s what we used to call a program. Things like vi and wordstar seem like they’d qualify.
Yes I agree, something like vi or GNU nano is a great example of a TUI. The meaning is drifting a bit but I think the distinction is useful: a CLI program is one that you can invoke from a Makefile.