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WezTerm – A GPU-accelerated cross-platform terminal emulator and multiplexer

wezfurlong.org

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Re: WezTerm – A GPU-accelerated cross-platform terminal emulator and multiplexer

#4
> WezTerm is a GPU-accelerated cross-platform terminal emulator and multiplexer written by @wez and implemented in Rust

This is great. I’ve been looking for a GPU-accelerated terminal written in Rust and haven’t been able to find one. Glad to see someone finally wrote one.

Re: WezTerm – A GPU-accelerated cross-platform terminal emulator and multiplexer

#5

> WezTerm is a GPU-accelerated cross-platform terminal emulator and multiplexer written by @wez and implemented in Rust This is great. I’ve been looking for a GPU-accelerated terminal written in Rust and haven’t been able to find one. Glad to see someone finally wrote one.

Alacritty?

Re: WezTerm – A GPU-accelerated cross-platform terminal emulator and multiplexer

#7
This is an honest question. What is the advantage of GPU acceleration for a terminal emulator?

I don’t do much low level graphics stuff, but a terminal seems fairly simple graphically, you are just drawing glyphs at xy cords. Would love it if someone had a good explanation.

Obviously there are some terminal applications that could be redrawing very quickly, but that seems like a solved problem.

Re: WezTerm – A GPU-accelerated cross-platform terminal emulator and multiplexer

#8

This is an honest question. What is the advantage of GPU acceleration for a terminal emulator? I don’t do much low level graphics stuff, but a terminal seems fairly simple graphically, you are just drawing glyphs at xy cords. Would love it if someone had a good explanation. Obviously there are some terminal applications that could be redrawing very quickly, but that seems like a solved problem.

Is it more complicated than wanting to update the display as often as its fresh frequency? Faster screen updates, lower CPU & power usage.

You might not notice the difference until you accidentally unleash a lot of output at once - then you'll see the difference. Some terminals start to update infrequently to save themselves, some hang completely while burning the CPU.

Psychologically I feel more in control of my computer, more confident to try things out if I can see my typing updating instantly than 10s or 100s of milliseconds later.

Re: WezTerm – A GPU-accelerated cross-platform terminal emulator and multiplexer

#9

> WezTerm is a GPU-accelerated cross-platform terminal emulator and multiplexer written by @wez and implemented in Rust This is great. I’ve been looking for a GPU-accelerated terminal written in Rust and haven’t been able to find one. Glad to see someone finally wrote one.

Alacritty?

I think that was humor, because there seem to be at least three GPU-accelerated terminal emulators written in Rust.

Re: WezTerm – A GPU-accelerated cross-platform terminal emulator and multiplexer

#10

This is an honest question. What is the advantage of GPU acceleration for a terminal emulator? I don’t do much low level graphics stuff, but a terminal seems fairly simple graphically, you are just drawing glyphs at xy cords. Would love it if someone had a good explanation. Obviously there are some terminal applications that could be redrawing very quickly, but that seems like a solved problem.

Well since GPU acceleration minimizes latency (because of zero-copy, all character textures are resident in video memory), that is a boon to perceived responsiveness. IMO that is the single most important feature in a terminal, next to correctness. It’s like typing on an old serial terminal.
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