Graphical keyboard-driven applications

rekado · 2011-03-17 05:55:19

It appears to me that there are only two types of applications one can choose from: command line applications (either mimicking graphical user interfaces with curses or with a pure text interface) or GUI applications with the typical widgets: menus, bars, buttons and so on. In many GUI applications the keyboard support is tantamount to providing a few shortcuts to menu items. This is why I often prefer programs that were designed for the command line.
Being a fan of neat font-rendering and typography, though, I dislike being forced to make a decision: either it is { non-proportional fonts + proper typography } OR { keyboard-driven interface + usability }.

I dislike using mutt for email, because I cannot stand looking at terminus / envy code r / inconsolata (you name it) when reading long paragraphs. A graphical email client, on the other hand side, typically reduces the reading pane, because of all the information it wants to put in plain sight of the user: menus, directories, this'n'that.

Do you know of applications that attempt to combine the benefits of both worlds? Like an email client with a modal keyboard-driven interface, showing only the text of the currently selected email in a user-specified font? With its settings tucked away in a configuration file? Without menus and the typical GUI-clutter?
I don't want to reinvent the tricycle (again and for no reason).

Is there anyone else who feels the same and would like to see something like this being developed? (The answer to this question might motivate me enough to actually work on something like this.)

Anyways, I'm looking forward to your input.

Stebalien · 2011-03-17 13:49:26

I don't know about email but you should take a look at programs like vimperator, zathura, uzbl, jumanji, luakit...

rekado · 2011-03-17 15:13:36

I am aware of these programs and I'm using vimperator for browsing the web. There doesn't seem to be many programs like that. Email clients, photo managers, man page browsers, vector graphic applications (inkscape without the menus but with a command line interface? Would be neat!) --- I find it difficult to find the right applications that fall between the geeky terminal programs and the clutter and bloat of GUIs.

ngoonee · 2011-03-17 15:16:38

I use Evolution for email, can pretty much do everything from the keyboard. Have to get used to the shortcuts, but that's a given in any case.

This is an interesting topic, I'm also interested in a good GUI file-manager driven by keyboard-shortcuts, nautilus is passable in that role but not anywhere near the efficiency of, say, ranger.

tvale · 2011-03-17 17:22:39

I suppose it would be neat to develop a full suite of applications. Using the pwmt.org's girara library would be a starting point I guess.

cian · 2011-03-17 17:43:28

Yes I'd love something like that. I'm not sure that its necessary for everything (ncmcpp is fine for my purposes), but newsbeuter which had proper html rendering and could show graphics would be fantastic.

If I had the free time (I really don't, and can't see that changing any time soon), I'd look into creating a ncurses clone as a starting point, and integrating webkit for the presentation layer. I'm not sure what library you'd base it on though. GTK?

Anthony Bentley · 2011-03-17 17:49:24

Mupdf is a chromeless PDF reader completely driven by the keyboard. (All the other programs I can think of were already listed.)

quigybo · 2011-03-18 07:16:14

I definitely love this idea too, it would be great to have a whole range of modal/keyboard driven GUI apps to choose from.

I haven't used it myself, but there is muttator (thunderbird), from the same people as vimperator (firefox).

ngoonee · 2011-03-18 07:30:48

quigybo wrote:

I definitely love this idea too, it would be great to have a whole range of modal/keyboard driven GUI apps to choose from.
I haven't used it myself, but there is muttator (thunderbird), from the same people as vimperator (firefox).

In my experience muttator is buggy. Plus the keybindings aren't really all THAT useful, different enough from vimperator that you feel uncomfortable yet still tying itself to the same interpretation of 'vim-like' that just confuses you in the end.

rekado · 2011-03-29 07:47:00

tvale wrote:

I suppose it would be neat to develop a full suite of applications.

Yes, that'd be lovely.
What I would wish to escape from is the console font in keyboard-driven interfaces. Does an application running in a graphical environment really need to use these ASCII-artsy dashes instead of, well, simple lines? I see that this makes sense on a pure ASCII terminal, but this abuse of special characters to mimic user interface separators is what makes these keyboard-driven interfaces look more geeky or nostalgic than they need to be (or rather: than I would wish them to be).

Example:
the "-- INSERT --" indicator or the progress bar in vimperator/pterodactyl; I don't enjoy working with vim because of its looks; copying the terminal-look when the actual goal is to re-implement the modal interface seems to be beside the point.

These thoughts lay dormant in the back of my head until I (again) watched the ad for Enso (http://www.humanized.com/). I always wanted to control my computer via some kind of universal command line interface (like an advanced dmenu). The actual text interface could be implemented there; compliant software would simply expose a socket to write to (similar to how the uzbl core works).
A program would thus be reduced to offering controllers and views; the interface could be implemented externally or internally as the traditional array of widgets (menu bars, status bars, you name it...).

Wouldn't that be ... unixy in some sense?

(NOTE: I'm only dreaming. Feel free to either join me or wake me up.)

EDIT: replace the concept of sockets with dbus and this might actually work. Will have to play a little with dbus to see if I can inch my way towards realization of this idea.

Last edited by rekado (2011-04-24 02:49:01)

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#1 2011-03-17 05:55:19

Graphical keyboard-driven applications

#2 2011-03-17 13:49:26

Re: Graphical keyboard-driven applications

#3 2011-03-17 15:13:36

Re: Graphical keyboard-driven applications

#4 2011-03-17 15:16:38

Re: Graphical keyboard-driven applications

#5 2011-03-17 17:22:39

Re: Graphical keyboard-driven applications

#6 2011-03-17 17:43:28

Re: Graphical keyboard-driven applications

#7 2011-03-17 17:49:24

Re: Graphical keyboard-driven applications

#8 2011-03-18 07:16:14

Re: Graphical keyboard-driven applications

#9 2011-03-18 07:30:48

Re: Graphical keyboard-driven applications

#10 2011-03-29 07:47:00

Re: Graphical keyboard-driven applications

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