State of the Terminal

#1

Post by fanf2 » Thu, May 16, 2024, 1:42 PM UTC

Re: State of the Terminal

#2

Post by nicce » Thu, May 16, 2024, 2:03 PM UTC

Just a shoutout how beautiful and powerful terminal editors can be if you invest some time to know the keybindings. There are some very powerful configurations and you don't need to invest that much time for configuration if you don't want to.

Currently, if you like visuals and want super fast experience, one easy (my favorite) setup is to install neovim, nvchad.com and (as extra neovide.dev)

Re: State of the Terminal

#3

Post by eminence32 » Thu, May 16, 2024, 2:10 PM UTC

A quick off-the-cuff remark based solely on the title: in 2024, I think the state of the terminal has never been better, in large part to Microsoft making a high quality terminal easily available to everyone on Windows [1]

As an application author, I love being able to assume that all major platforms have a good terminal and that my favorite terminal rendering libraries should Just Work on all of them

[1] https://github.com/microsoft/terminal

Re: State of the Terminal

#4

Post by _lvbh » Thu, May 16, 2024, 2:14 PM UTC

> Modifier keys like Ctrl and Alt complicate this situation.

This is such an understatement. Alacritty required you to manually bind keys to control characters in the config and finding the control characters escape sequences were such a nightmare I gave up and switched to foot

Re: State of the Terminal

#5

Post by mg » Thu, May 16, 2024, 2:20 PM UTC

The terminal is such a wonderful environment. It makes many tasks joyful.

I think it stems from its simplicity and logic.

You have a simple grid of characters. You type the name of a program, hit enter, and the computer executes it. The output of the program is written below your prompt. Below the output, you can execute the next program. You can chain output and input of programs, allowing all kinds of data flows. The programs can also take over the whole grid and thereby allow all kinds of interfaces.

I can't think of a way to describe a window manager or a browser in similar, simple terms, which would explain the basis of all the usefulness they bring.

Re: State of the Terminal

#6

Post by inguz » Thu, May 16, 2024, 2:21 PM UTC

Retro-plug: here's a Teletype ASR33 simulator with sound https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jd5oomwEBb0

Re: State of the Terminal

#7

Post by blueflow » Thu, May 16, 2024, 2:23 PM UTC

eminence32 wrote: post #3

A quick off-the-cuff remark based solely on the title: in 2024, I think the state of the terminal has never been better, in large part to Microsoft making a high quality terminal easily available to everyone on Windows [1] As an application author, I love being able to assume that all major platforms have a good terminal and that my favorite terminal rendering libraries should Just Work on all of them [1] https://git…

I really dislike that they re-used the TERM value from xterm instead of getting their own merged into terminfo. And then not documenting which sequences are actually supported and which aren't.

Re: State of the Terminal

#8

Post by unshavedyak » Thu, May 16, 2024, 2:27 PM UTC

mg wrote: post #5

The terminal is such a wonderful environment. It makes many tasks joyful. I think it stems from its simplicity and logic. You have a simple grid of characters. You type the name of a program, hit enter, and the computer executes it. The output of the program is written below your prompt. Below the output, you can execute the next program. You can chain output and input of programs, allowing all kinds of data flows. T…

Agreed. My only real problem is that font size and "UI" size (gutters/etc) being tied feels like an accessibility tax. Aside from that, they're wonderful.

I wonder if we could eventually make a "new term" which shares the same foundation, but atop a rich rendered experience. A GUI written with simple primitives (that could also probably be rendered as TUI, frankly), but with slightly more slick (and expensive lol) rendering.

I know, i know - blasphemy, i'm sorry. But despite my love for the Term (i've been in it for ~15 years now) i long for _slightly improved_ graphics.

Re: State of the Terminal

#9

Post by ilaksh » Thu, May 16, 2024, 2:32 PM UTC

It would be nice if more terminals other than xterm would support Tektronix vector graphics.

https://github.com/bennetyee/TekGraphics

Here's an emulator for those specific real terminals: https://github.com/rricharz/Tek4010

Re: State of the Terminal

#10

Post by mbrumlow » Thu, May 16, 2024, 2:33 PM UTC

unshavedyak wrote: post #8

mg wrote: post #5

The terminal is such a wonderful environment. It makes many tasks joyful. I think it stems from its simplicity and logic. You have a simple grid of characters. You type the name of a program, hit enter, and the computer executes it. The output of the program is written below your prompt. Below the output, you can execute the next program. You can chain output and input of programs, allowing all kinds of data flows. T…

Agreed. My only real problem is that font size and "UI" size (gutters/etc) being tied feels like an accessibility tax. Aside from that, they're wonderful. I wonder if we could eventually make a "new term" which shares the same foundation, but atop a rich rendered experience. A GUI written with simple primitives (that could also probably be rendered as TUI, frankly), but with slightly more slick (and expensive lol) re…

It’s called emacs.