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Cool-retro-term: terminal emulator which mimics look and feel of CRTs

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Re: Cool-retro-term: terminal emulator which mimics look and feel of CRTs

#11

Post by jauntywundrkind »

Side question, was there a reason early CRT screens were amber? Or was this perhaps maybe downstream of PLATO & the first plasma (and touch) screens being a Friendly Orange Glow?

Recommending Friendly Orange Glow (Doer, 2018), btw. Fun read. https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/545610/the-friendly...

Re: Cool-retro-term: terminal emulator which mimics look and feel of CRTs

#12

Post by Diti »

graiz wrote: post #6

Cool project, love the visuals. Wish it would merge as a plugin or something to a project like http://ghostty.org/ while I appreciate the visual fun, there are other pragmatic tools beyond visuals that are handy.

Ghostty already supports shaders and effects like this.

Re: Cool-retro-term: terminal emulator which mimics look and feel of CRTs

#13

Post by com2kid »

I used to daily drive this, most of the effects were minimized but I found that a little bit of white noise really helped make my terminal a lot easier on the eyes to read. I wonder if it is related to how some people find that film grain has a pleasing effect.

For those looking at the screenshots note that the terminal is incredibly customizable, you don't have to have all the effects dialed up to 11!

Sadly bit rot has set in and the project doesn't work that well now days. Also a lack of tab support really hurts it as a daily driving terminal.

Re: Cool-retro-term: terminal emulator which mimics look and feel of CRTs

#14

Post by Shadow_Death »

dylan604 wrote: post #8

Just like back in the day, this would cause me to tire so much faster than I normally do. These things are "cute", but for actually getting shit done, they are an annoyance. Does anyone use something like this for extended periods of time? The clarity of modern terminals is a godsend.

I think it's the blurry text. I installed it once and used it maybe twice. I found that I spent most of my time squinting at the screen like I needed to put my glasses on. I had to quit using it because my face hurt from squinting the whole time.

Re: Cool-retro-term: terminal emulator which mimics look and feel of CRTs

#15

Post by Aldipower »

com2kid wrote: post #13

I used to daily drive this, most of the effects were minimized but I found that a little bit of white noise really helped make my terminal a lot easier on the eyes to read. I wonder if it is related to how some people find that film grain has a pleasing effect. For those looking at the screenshots note that the terminal is incredibly customizable, you don't have to have all the effects dialed up to 11! Sadly bit rot…

Having the same with audio. I actually like tape hiss. :-O

Re: Cool-retro-term: terminal emulator which mimics look and feel of CRTs

#16

Post by Cyan488 »

jauntywundrkind wrote: post #11

Side question, was there a reason early CRT screens were amber? Or was this perhaps maybe downstream of PLATO & the first plasma (and touch) screens being a Friendly Orange Glow? Recommending Friendly Orange Glow (Doer, 2018), btw. Fun read. https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/545610/the-friendly...

The color of the screens is related to the phosphor used to coat the back of the screen, which is excited to glow by the electron beam. According to wiki, amber was used as an "eye-friendly" ergonomic color for similar reasons we use blue blocking filters today.

Re: Cool-retro-term: terminal emulator which mimics look and feel of CRTs

#17

Post by Cockbrand »

jauntywundrkind wrote: post #11

Side question, was there a reason early CRT screens were amber? Or was this perhaps maybe downstream of PLATO & the first plasma (and touch) screens being a Friendly Orange Glow? Recommending Friendly Orange Glow (Doer, 2018), btw. Fun read. https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/545610/the-friendly...

IIRC, amber was considered the most eye friendly color back then. The cheaper monochrome screens were green-on-black.

Re: Cool-retro-term: terminal emulator which mimics look and feel of CRTs

#18

Post by aduitsis »

Diti wrote: post #12
graiz wrote: post #6

Cool project, love the visuals. Wish it would merge as a plugin or something to a project like http://ghostty.org/ while I appreciate the visual fun, there are other pragmatic tools beyond visuals that are handy.

Ghostty already supports shaders and effects like this.

It can only apply shader(s) to the current frame I think. To produce the crt ghosting you'd probably need access to the previous frame (not an expert).

Re: Cool-retro-term: terminal emulator which mimics look and feel of CRTs

#20

Post by technothrasher »

Not quite this extreme, but I usually use the old Sun console font in my terminal windows, because I'm an old fart and it makes me happy. Someone at work just the other day looked at my screen and said, "What the heck is wrong with your terminal window???"
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