3 ms·

Is there still no way to make iTerm2 refresh faster? When doing quick scrolling or output, it's so noticeably choppy compared to Terminal.app, or even Xterm.

Longhanks 10y ago
This bothers me, too. Terminal lacks some features I really want, but it's implementation just feels polished. It's just so smooth, reflows text nicely and renders fonts perfectly.
- daleroberts 10y ago
  Terminal is great but a major lacking feature is 'true color' (https://gist.github.com/XVilka/8346728 https://gist.github.com/XVilka/8346728). If you an Apple engineer working on Terminal and reading this post, please add it, it would be much appreciated :)
  - eddieh 10y ago
    And here I thought I was spoiled with 256 colors in Terminal.
codezero 10y ago
Do you use any advanced features like triggers/alerts with captured output? I found that a regex I was using to pop a notif was slowing iTerm2 down big time, removed it, and it feels much better now.
- mikejmoffitt 10y ago
  Zero. I use iTerm2 when I have to use a Mac, where I act as though it's Xterm. This is just out of the box behavior. Older versions had an adjustable refresh rate slider.
- gnachman 10y ago
  Triggers were super slow in 2.x but are much faster in 3.0. Try it again if it's been a while.
- gnachman 10y ago
  Triggers were super slow in 2.x but are much faster in 3.0. Try it again if it's been a while.
gnachman 10y ago
Terminal dispensed with NSScrollView and I think that won a performance advantage in rendering. It's hard to do if you're not Apple. They also modulate the refresh rate based on load, which 3.1 adds. They're using Core Text which is very slow compared to Core Graphics but they made it up with clever hacks.
- mikejmoffitt 10y ago
  I don't buy it as the main problem. 60fps is not asking for very much from a terminal emulator. VGA text modes can handle it, my old 486DX laptop can handle it, and XTerm can handle it (even fully software rendering everything to a buffer). It's possible core text is to blame, but this seems like an odd problem for an emulator to have in 2017.

Longhanks 10y ago

This bothers me, too. Terminal lacks some features I really want, but it's implementation just feels polished. It's just so smooth, reflows text nicely and renders fonts perfectly.

daleroberts 10y ago
Terminal is great but a major lacking feature is 'true color' (https://gist.github.com/XVilka/8346728 https://gist.github.com/XVilka/8346728). If you an Apple engineer working on Terminal and reading this post, please add it, it would be much appreciated :)
- eddieh 10y ago
  And here I thought I was spoiled with 256 colors in Terminal.

codezero 10y ago

Do you use any advanced features like triggers/alerts with captured output? I found that a regex I was using to pop a notif was slowing iTerm2 down big time, removed it, and it feels much better now.

mikejmoffitt 10y ago
Zero. I use iTerm2 when I have to use a Mac, where I act as though it's Xterm. This is just out of the box behavior. Older versions had an adjustable refresh rate slider.
gnachman 10y ago
Triggers were super slow in 2.x but are much faster in 3.0. Try it again if it's been a while.
gnachman 10y ago
Triggers were super slow in 2.x but are much faster in 3.0. Try it again if it's been a while.

gnachman 10y ago

Terminal dispensed with NSScrollView and I think that won a performance advantage in rendering. It's hard to do if you're not Apple. They also modulate the refresh rate based on load, which 3.1 adds. They're using Core Text which is very slow compared to Core Graphics but they made it up with clever hacks.

mikejmoffitt 10y ago
I don't buy it as the main problem. 60fps is not asking for very much from a terminal emulator. VGA text modes can handle it, my old 486DX laptop can handle it, and XTerm can handle it (even fully software rendering everything to a buffer). It's possible core text is to blame, but this seems like an odd problem for an emulator to have in 2017.