That's ridiculous! The only invisible things in Emacs deserve to be so. For everything else, there is a menu bar which is also visible in terminal `emacs -nw` mode. Just add `(xterm-mouse-mode t)` to ~/.emacs to make sure the mouse works properly. Very pointy, very clicky, and nice pretty menus that tell you the shortcut of each function.
To enable the helpful mouse interface, run with this mode and add this to your hidden config file. What's a mode? How do I edit the config file until I fix my editor? This is such a unix answer.
To be fair if you're trying to start Emacs in a terminal instead of letting Emacs control its output on its own you've already gone off the beaten path.
The thing you want (the helpful mouse interface) is the Emacs default. The funny command-line flag is what makes it weird. Just don't use that flag.
"TUI" is "text(ual) user interface", not "terminal user interface". If the UI is (primarily?) made of text (which it is in Emacs' GUI mode) then it doesn't need to be in the terminal.
That's ridiculous! The only invisible things in Emacs deserve to be so. For everything else, there is a menu bar which is also visible in terminal `emacs -nw` mode. Just add `(xterm-mouse-mode t)` to ~/.emacs to make sure the mouse works properly. Very pointy, very clicky, and nice pretty menus that tell you the shortcut of each function.