sc-im Spreadsheets in Your Terminal

Re:sc-im Spreadsheets in Your Terminal by dodomodo on Monday April 06, 2026 @01:26PM (#47664005)

I think spreadsheets are a greater example of something that require the subtleties of an actual GUI. This is most obvious with the various plots which are hilariously imprecise. But the advantages of GUI are also present when just using the spreadsheet itself, it's ability to convey the skeuomorphic two dimensional space is much greater.

And it's not like the terminal can't be a greater data processing tool, but you have to use different paradigms.

Still from an esthetical perspective I love those simple TUI interfaces. They invoke a weird sense of comfort in me that I can't fully explain.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:sc-im Spreadsheets in Your Terminal by akavel on Monday April 06, 2026 @02:13PM (#47664684)

Lol, young padawan, check up those weird old programs that were called "VisiCalc" and "Lotus 1-2-3".

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VisiCalc

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lotus_1-2-3

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:sc-im Spreadsheets in Your Terminal by nomel on Monday April 06, 2026 @02:38PM (#47665017)

Which were before GUI of any complexity were possible. There was no alternative at the time.

Related, see the insane success and excitement from the early GUI based operating systems.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:sc-im Spreadsheets in Your Terminal by freedomben on Monday April 06, 2026 @02:02PM (#47664508)

> I think spreadsheets are a greater example of something that require the subtleties of an actual GUI

I've been wondering about this too. I think a great TUI could get it done though, but it remains to be seen how it could really stack up. If I didn't have so many projects already, I'd give this a shot because I would really love a "vim" for spreadsheets

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:sc-im Spreadsheets in Your Terminal by dmarinus on Monday April 06, 2026 @02:15PM (#47664720)

The first spreadsheets I remember were TUI (pccalc, Lotus 123)

[ Parent | on HN ]