There is a learning curve, but not coping. One of the crest things with terminal: with experience one can type ahead, even before the form fully opened one can type data, which is queued in the input buffer and work efficiently. In a modern GUI application a lot of time is wasted with reaching for the mouse, aiming and waiting for the new form to render. That requires coping with it

Case in point: the aforementioned accountant obviously hated the new GUI-based app, exactly because of what you said. Aiming the mouse, looking for that button, etc. slows you down.

It doesn't have to. The tab order seems shortcuts are there and very usable... if anyone bothers to implement them.

Not only implement, but implement them consistently and making users aware.

Consistency is a thing. Old windows apps often followed a style guide to some degree, that was lost with web (while it's also hard, as styleguides differ between systems, like Windows and Mac) and wasn't ever as close as Mainframe terminal things where function keys had global effects.

Indeed. One of the things I keep having to tell younger people is: “webapps have no HIG!”

All of the major platforms have a HIG that tells developers how to maximize the experience for users. Webapps have dozens of ways to do things like “search”. Those who never developed for a platform with a HIG do not value it and keep reinventing everything.

In a native single-threaded UI, you can type ahead too. But it doesn't work on the web unless the page effectively reimplements an input queue.

I had to interact with a windows software which allows you to collect data with a digital form. We used it to digitize paper based survey by mapping free form question to a choices list.

The best oart was that it was entirely keyboard driven. If you can touch type, you can just read the paper and type away. The job was mind numbing, but the software itself was great.

I wouldn't say, cope, the green screen stuff has predictable field input, and predictable rules around selecting elements.

Despite its obvious downsides, for people who do regular form input and editing, it's often better than the flavor of the day web framework IMO

I mean, I wouldn't choose to use it, but I get it

I worked at Best Buy as a high school teenager just before they switched the green screens to some GUI monstrosity. Everyone in the store had to learn how to use the green screens (sales people, cashiers, techs, stockers - everyone) and after a few weeks / months you would get CRAZY fast.

A few years later in college I worked there again and by that point they'd transitioned to a much slower GUI that basically just wrapped the underlying green screen system. The learning curve was slightly better, but it wasn't nearly as fast.

Purpose-built mainframe-based TUIs were amazing. We lost a lot in pursuit of colored pixels.