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Kitty – GPU based terminal emulator

sw.kovidgoyal.net

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Re: Kitty – GPU based terminal emulator

#31

Post by lxe »

unpopularopp wrote: post #14

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…

I've been using a terminal extensively for over twenty years. However, I was never able to get to the whole Vim and mouse-less keyboard only setup. If you can live your life to the fullest without using the terminal, I kind of envy you.

Re: Kitty – GPU based terminal emulator

#32

Post by mmgutz »

GuinansEyebrows wrote: post #7
lxe wrote: 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 :)

> 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. i'm interested in this idea. can you expand on that? what functionality are you replacing? i don't currently use a DE and i get along pretty well doing most of my work in alacritty and firefox-esr. occasionally i drop into pcmanfm if i need a visual…

I'm on wayland. Kitty can be used as a layershell window. So you can build panels, taskbars, etc if you were so inclined. For example, you want fastfetch or htop as a live desktop background? Kitty can do that.

Re: Kitty – GPU based terminal emulator

#33

Post by mmgutz »

skayvr wrote: 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.

[foot](https://codeberg.org/dnkl/foot) is an excellent st alternative on wayland.

Re: Kitty – GPU based terminal emulator

#34

Post by fluidcruft »

jauntywundrkind wrote: post #11
lxe wrote: 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 :)

My only guess is that this refers to graphical rendering support. https://sw.kovidgoyal.net/kitty/graphics-protocol/ I both see enormous value mixing text and console, and also worry that TUI will overcomplicate and add even more unnecessary embellishment than it already is trending towards? Semi grump opinion. But it feels weird introducing a new canvas. I do like the idea of graphics being online in a terminal sess…

Finally a terminal with banner ads support!

Re: Kitty – GPU based terminal emulator

#36

Post by MangoToupe »

fluoridation wrote: post #21
JdeBP wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Most people interact with a shell through a terminal emulator, though. The alternative is something like emacs's eshell. Or an actual "terminal" which hasn't been even available for purchase for many decades.

Re: Kitty – GPU based terminal emulator

#37

Post by calvinmorrison »

skayvr wrote: 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.

I spent a long time on the gtk vte based terminals (sakura, I wrote my own called svte later), then to st until i had too many patches stacked, then alacritty, but that took a long time to get to because I couldnt figure out how the kerning was different than ST!

Now i am on that and it is fine

Re: Kitty – GPU based terminal emulator

#38

Post by calvinmorrison »

mmgutz wrote: post #32
GuinansEyebrows wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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. i'm interested in this idea. can you expand on that? what functionality are you replacing? i don't currently use a DE and i get along pretty well doing most of my work in alacritty and firefox-esr. occasionally i drop into pcmanfm if i need a visual…

I'm on wayland. Kitty can be used as a layershell window. So you can build panels, taskbars, etc if you were so inclined. For example, you want fastfetch or htop as a live desktop background? Kitty can do that.

I'd like to introduce you to conky

Re: Kitty – GPU based terminal emulator

#39

Post by candleknight »

kitty is great, but I stopped using it because iTerm's terminal search feature - which I use almost daily - is much more ergonomic. The existing solution in kitty (pipe scrollback buffer to something like less/vim and search with /) is a lot worse IMO which is unfortunately a dealbreaker for me

Re: Kitty – GPU based terminal emulator

#40

Post by fluoridation »

MangoToupe wrote: post #36
fluoridation wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Most people interact with a shell through a terminal emulator, though. The alternative is something like emacs's eshell. Or an actual "terminal" which hasn't been even available for purchase for many decades.

Not always. The shell may be facing a serial interface, or it could be spawned by a program and have no user interface at all.
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