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> Capable terminal emulator (macOS’ Terminal.app doesn’t qualify)

Why doesn't Terminal.app qualify? I used to use iTerm 2 because I liked its pane management, but after switching to using tmux several years ago, I've solely used Terminal.app + tmux without any issues in my workflow. What am I missing out on?



I'm sure everyone has a favorite, mine is simply able to slide out iTerm2 from the top of the screen with a hotkey (tilde ofc.) à la Quake console.

https://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/48796/iterm-as-a-s...


Same, lol; that really is the only unique selling point for me at the moment. Although I'm sure there's a lot of subtle things (performance, font rendering, tabs, etc) that do it for me as well.


performance

The latency of iTerm has traditionally been much worse than Terminal.app. It got a bit better with GPU rendering, but it still trails behind Terminal.app quite a bit.

https://danluu.com/term-latency/

https://www.lkhrs.com/blog/2022/07/terminal-latency/

I tried iTerm for a while because Terminal.app does not support true color. But the difference in latency is definitely noticeable to me.


I use Alacritty as my terminal emulator plus hammerspoon to get the same effect.


Would you be willing to share your Hammerspoon config, or at least that part? Would love to do this with Alacritty!



I used to be an iTerm user long ago but haven't used anything but Terminal.app the last decade. Can't really say I miss the bells and whistles.


kitty’s completely borderless mode, hyperconfigurability, and general aesthetics (and GPU rendering but it matters little)


GPU rendering matters a lot. For the experienced developer who does all their programming in a terminal, being able to get crisp instant feed back with each key press is critical for a pleasant experience. Other terminals without this just feel too sluggish.


After spending the beginning of my career remoting onto mainframes via low baud serial connections, all terminal emulators now feel responsive to me :)

One of my colleagues at my first job didn’t even have a direct connection to the mainframe when he started. He used to write his code on paper, get a typist to then enter that into the mainframe and he would get the output a day or two later. Which meant he had to put a lot more care into checking for syntax errors before handing the code off to be entered and compiled.


I really like iterm2 integration with tmux when windows are native.


True colour support and decent custom bindings are what keep me off of Terminal.app.


iTerm's session restoration. It just works, without manually saving or anything. Saved me tons of time from reboots or crashes.




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