Almost a year ago, a programmer friend of mine started to complain about data tables in the JS ecosystem. He used ag-grid to build a data table in his project and became frustrated with the usage of the typing system (which is understandable). When I commented that at the time this was the best we have in the JS ecosystem he said people need to use Excel instead, but when I pointed out that users want the data table to displayed in the UI of the app, he started to complain that no one needs UI and people just need to use the terminal or other applications like Excel instead.
And that last statement stuck with me almost a year later.
I’ll be honest his opinion is not uncommon (especially from his background as a rust developer who is used to the terminal). And the terminal has become a big part of the developer experience in the last few years thanks to tools like tmux and iTerm2 but especially thanks to Claude Code and OpenCode as AI-harnesses.
But I have to disagree.
The problem with the terminal
The terminal is a great tool for many things, but it’s not a good fit for all tasks and not for all users.