[oplav]

> 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?

[nntwozz]

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...

[Cthulhu_]

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.

[microtonal]

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.

[jdalt]

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

[tjfl]

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

[tjfl]

I found it, and then some:

- https://github.com/alacritty/alacritty/issues/862#issuecomme... - https://gist.github.com/programus/d3bf9c6b8f9b7648891d1f59b6... - https://world.hey.com/jonash/alacritty-drop-down-guake-quake...

Really cool!

[daneel_w]

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.

[skhm]

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

[xwdv]

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.

[hnlmorg]

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.

[para_parolu]

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

[dorian-graph]

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

[krembanan]

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