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Kitty – GPU based terminal emulator

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Re: Kitty – GPU based terminal emulator

#21
post #15

I'm probably the extreme minority on HN (0.00001%) but I pretty much never used any CLI applications. Just never really needed them. But recently at work (we use Macs) I had some tasks which need the Terminal.app so I kinda tried to dig in and learn some stuff but whenever I feel I already know something (more or less) there is always some new stuff entering the picture next day. Shell, console, terminal... now a ter…

They are all terminal emulators . You have probably, as one who has never used the command line, never touched an actual terminal .

A shell is not a terminal emulator. It's a program that does text I/O (perhaps with a terminal, perhaps not) and implements basic system functionality like executing programs and often scripting.

Re: Kitty – GPU based terminal emulator

#22

Unfortunately the dev intentionally refuses to add Bitmap font support for fonts like Terminus.

The author is an interesting character of strong, often contrarian, opinion. He's also the guy behind the Calibre e-book software, which was largely written in Python 2 long after that was deprecated. He even wanted to maintain Python 2 himself rather than rewrite Calibre, but he eventually realized that wasn't feasible and ported Calibre to Python 3.

Re: Kitty – GPU based terminal emulator

#23

I'm probably the extreme minority on HN (0.00001%) but I pretty much never used any CLI applications. Just never really needed them. But recently at work (we use Macs) I had some tasks which need the Terminal.app so I kinda tried to dig in and learn some stuff but whenever I feel I already know something (more or less) there is always some new stuff entering the picture next day. Shell, console, terminal... now a ter…

"console", "terminal" and "terminal emulator" all refer to the same thing. "shell" is the read-eval-print-loop interface you use to work in the terminal.

Please don't confuse the novices. A console is either a special kernel device or a UI subsystem; a terminal is a physical piece of kit; and a terminal emulator is an application that runs on a general purpose computer that emulates one of the aforementioned pieces of kit.

* https://jdebp.uk/FGA/tui-console-and-terminal-paradigms.html

* https://jdebp.uk/Softwares/nosh/guide/commands/freebsd-conso...

* https://jdebp.uk/Softwares/nosh/guide/commands/linux-console...

* https://jdebp.uk/Softwares/nosh/guide/commands/linux-vt.xml

* https://blog.bruchez.name/posts/televideo-912-terminal-1/

Re: Kitty – GPU based terminal emulator

#24
post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"console", "terminal" and "terminal emulator" all refer to the same thing. "shell" is the read-eval-print-loop interface you use to work in the terminal.

Please don't confuse the novices. A console is either a special kernel device or a UI subsystem; a terminal is a physical piece of kit; and a terminal emulator is an application that runs on a general purpose computer that emulates one of the aforementioned pieces of kit. * https://jdebp.uk/FGA/tui-console-and-terminal-paradigms.html * https://jdebp.uk/Softwares/nosh/guide/commands/freebsd-conso... * https://jdebp.uk…

Technically true, but I’ve never heard anyone say “open a terminal emulator and type…”

Re: Kitty – GPU based terminal emulator

#25

I'm probably the extreme minority on HN (0.00001%) but I pretty much never used any CLI applications. Just never really needed them. But recently at work (we use Macs) I had some tasks which need the Terminal.app so I kinda tried to dig in and learn some stuff but whenever I feel I already know something (more or less) there is always some new stuff entering the picture next day. Shell, console, terminal... now a ter…

Long story short: Terminals were the result of moving teleprinting stuff from paper to the screen. The shell is program that accept commands and execute the relevant program and I’m pretty sure console was the whole apparatus.

But now we moved the whole protocol to a program (an emilator) instead, and console refers to the initial boot environment, the attached display, keyboard pair (because you can still use another computer as the interface for control).

But the protocol is fairly old and some stuff clashes with current paradigms for using a computers.

Re: Kitty – GPU based terminal emulator

#26
post #8

My progression has been st -> kitty -> ghostty. I wanted to love st, but found too many unpolished corners. Kitty was great, but it felt like the exact opposite of st. Very large and opinionated. ghostty, at least originally, was new and something between st and kitty. With claude code I wonder where the landscape of personalized software will land. st and others may be on to something in this era.

[deleted]

Re: Kitty – GPU based terminal emulator

#27
post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Please don't confuse the novices. A console is either a special kernel device or a UI subsystem; a terminal is a physical piece of kit; and a terminal emulator is an application that runs on a general purpose computer that emulates one of the aforementioned pieces of kit. * https://jdebp.uk/FGA/tui-console-and-terminal-paradigms.html * https://jdebp.uk/Softwares/nosh/guide/commands/freebsd-conso... * https://jdebp.uk…

Technically true, but I’ve never heard anyone say “open a terminal emulator and type…”

You've only been within earshot of slipshod people. (-: And you are typing below a headline that calls the thing a terminal emulator, so you cannot really say that you've never encountered one referred to as such.

Re: Kitty – GPU based terminal emulator

#29
post #2

Kitty terminal can essentially replace a big part of a linux desktop environment, if you want it to. It's infinitely customizable AND has own opinions at the same time. Also my interactive scrollbar change was recently merged in, so if that was stopping you, you can now replace iTerm on your mac with it :)

> infinitely customizable

Except for loading your own shaders, which they decided they weren't interested in and wouldn't support.

Re: Kitty – GPU based terminal emulator

#30

Unfortunately the dev intentionally refuses to add Bitmap font support for fonts like Terminus.

The author is an interesting character of strong, often contrarian, opinion. He's also the guy behind the Calibre e-book software, which was largely written in Python 2 long after that was deprecated. He even wanted to maintain Python 2 himself rather than rewrite Calibre, but he eventually realized that wasn't feasible and ported Calibre to Python 3.

Incredible popular software lore here. Calibre and Kitty are two of my favorite pieces of software in the world.
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