> But I wish there was an effort of building a new, modern, textual interface to computers with modern assumptions and integration bindings.
Would it be different from a web-browser? Isn't the webstack already the modern textual interface everyone is using? I mean that's also the direction they all are walking to, with adding images to terminals, having more complex layout with TUIs. I think I remember some TUI-toolkit which even used a limited CSS for describing their interface. And there are some terminals and alternatives which are build with NodeJS and webstack IIRC. So would it make more sense to find some proper standards for webstack-based cli-interfaces?
> Isn't the webstack already the modern textual interface everyone is using?
I would argue that the web stack is really more of a virtual machine, or OS-agnostic application runtime, but it is not a textual interface per se (albeit it certainly can be used that way).
On the other hand, I'm looking for solid primitives to make applications talk to each other, but with structured data instead of plain text open to liberal interpretation; for terminals that don't emulate a teletype device, but make use of modern operating systems. Think of what we had before systemd—the wild west of shell scripts, layers upon layers of arcane compatibility hacks—and what we have now—a standardised, documented, structured, system management interface that works the same way everywhere (please don't lets discuss systemd here, it's just an analogy).
So rather than trying to paint NodeJS-lipstick on the TTY-pig, I'd like to see a new kind of terminal protocol that solves the UX issues of old.
> I'm looking for solid primitives to make applications talk to each other, but with structured data instead of plain text open to liberal interpretation
JSON exists. YAML exists. XML exists. The lack of proper exchange-formats is not a problem. The lack of tooling is the problem.
> Think of what we had before systemd—the wild west of shell scripts
Liberty. And this gives you an answer why terminals, shells and cli in general remain this way. People have the liberty to do what they need, and they have the liberty to go as simple or complex as they want. And this works very well. Don't forget that not all output is structured.
So unless you have someone creating a whole new set of tools and environment which can compete with the established solutions, and beat them on ALL aspects, and is still compatible...until then people will not support it. I mean, there are more than enough alternatives who are barely popular for one reason or another. Speaks for itself.
> I'd like to see a new kind of terminal protocol that solves the UX issues of old.
Which are the issues? Is there some solid documentation on them?
Would it be different from a web-browser? Isn't the webstack already the modern textual interface everyone is using? I mean that's also the direction they all are walking to, with adding images to terminals, having more complex layout with TUIs. I think I remember some TUI-toolkit which even used a limited CSS for describing their interface. And there are some terminals and alternatives which are build with NodeJS and webstack IIRC. So would it make more sense to find some proper standards for webstack-based cli-interfaces?