What would be interesting is if someone made a web-based GUI wrapper around such apps. I am sure it would be possible, considering that curses-based wrappers have been around: http://zemljanka.sourceforge.net/cursed/.
It's just that you write it once and it can run anywhere without "installing" many dependencies other than a browser. No fugly GUIs, no inconsistencies, etc.
By web-based I didn't mean it to be on the Internet.
Absolutely — you just open a high port on localhost and open the URL in a browser. I've used this technique before on consulting projects with great success.
I've actually thought about making something like this.
My reasons: collaborative coding + debugging, and IDEs without needing an environment aside from your browser (coding + compiling + debugging code on the device it's made for).
There's a commercial extension of Seaside, where they've put all of the Smalltalk development tools and made AJAX webapps out of them. Basically, you can set things up then do everything through the browser. (Webvelocity)